


Anything for a Friend

by rocknrollalien



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: And every trope that goes alone with that, Cafe dates, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fancy Dress Ball, posting cute pics on social media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-02 04:18:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5233841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocknrollalien/pseuds/rocknrollalien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien would love it if fangirls left him alone for once in his life, but he knows that this will likely be a problem for as long as he's single. Nino comes up with a potentially genius plan: just pretend to date a kindhearted classmate, and the problem will go away! </p><p>Aka Adrien is oblivious and Marinette is too nice for her own good</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Did you notice that Chloe went through and liked every single photo on your official instagram?” Nino asked, scrolling through his phone with an expression of distaste.

“Is that look for my pictures or for Chloe?” Adrien asked, fiddling with his pencil rather than doing any homework. Nino was possibly the worst influence when it came to homework completion, but having him over for homework was possibly the only way Adrien’s father would allow him through the doors these days. “And yeah, she checks the page every day. Sometimes she comments her phone number.”

“Well, she’s got points for being cheeky I guess,” Nino replied. He set his phone down and looked curiously at Adrien, who raised his eyebrows in response. “What’s it like, getting so much attention from girls?” he asked.

“Obnoxious,” Adrien responded honestly. “I feel like if I ever take off my shirt I’ll be responsible for six fainting episodes and a bloody nose.”

“I don’t know if that’s too much anime or a too huge ego talking, my friend, but you’re probably right. Which just makes poor old me upset,” Nino said, laughing.

Adrien shrugged. “There’s nothing to do about it. As long as I’m single, they think I’m free game.”

He turned away from Nino’s thoughtful expression, honestly dubious about whatever idea he was ruminating upon, and took the time to do a few math problems. Part of him worried that Nino would stay true to his previous ideas and attempt to ask Adrien’s father for some help with the problem. He could only imagine what would happen if Nino succeeded that persuasion attempt--would his father conscript another of the teen models to pose as his girlfriend? He snorted as his own word choice. Model? Pose? He was a genius.

“My friend, you may not acknowledge it, but you are in the presence of a genius,” Nino announced, striking the temporary fear that Nino might be able to read Adrien’s thoughts into his heart. “Your problems only persists as long as you’re single, no?”

Adrien narrowed his eyes. “True,” he said.

“Then you need to get a girlfriend!” Nino said, hands proudly on hips.

“I don’t like any girls though,” Adrien replied. He hated to shoot down Nino’s ideas but he couldn’t picture any girl other than one spandex clad super heroine on his arm. The idea of a Chloe or a Rose so much as holding his hand made him uncomfortable.

“A boyfriend?” Nino offered.

“More tempting, but my father would likely kill me. Anyway I kinda do have a thing for one girl, but she doesn’t go to our school and she definitely doesn’t like me back,” he said, laughing. 

Nino pondered, and his thinking face was so dramatic that Adrien couldn’t help but laugh.

“What about a fake girlfriend?” Nino suggested at last, looking less convinced of this idea than he had the previous two, but still hopeful. “Someone who knows they’re not really in a relationship with you, but is willing to pretend so that you stop getting harassed.”

“I…” Adrien began to shoot the idea down, but he paused, thinking about it a bit more. “We’d have to find someone who is really selfless to want to do that.”

* * *

 

Marinette was hardly listening to the lecture. She knew it had something to do with physics--or at least that was a very likely topic of the lecture, given that she was sitting in Physics class. But when would physics help her in day to day life? True, she had a fairly good grasp of how fast something was going to fall, how much the wind affected things, and whether or not she had enough momentum to make jaw dropping leaps--but that wasn’t really physics, right? More like instinct. 

In any case, she’d been struck by inspiration after dealing with the latest akuma victim, and she needed to get all these designs to paper before she forgot them. She didn’t know who was turning all of these poor people into villains, but whoever it was really had a sense of colour coordination. 

“--ette. Marinette!”

Slowly, with much shame, she came to realize that someone was saying her name.

“I’m listening, I swear!” she said, her eyes snapping to the front of the room and her face turning pink.

“Well that’s good to hear,” replied Ms. Mendeleiev with a curious smile. She had been writing on the board just a moment ago, and it became clear with Chloe and Sabrina’s laughter that she had not been the one attempting to get Marinette’s attention.

Marinette covered her face with her hands until the moment passed, and the rest of the class returned their focus to physics problems.

“Psst!” came a voice from in front of her, and she uncovered a single eye to spy who was trying to talk to her.

Adrien was looking up at her, smiling apologetically, but undeniably trying to get her attention. Reflexively, she checked behind her in case someone more interesting was directly behind her and trying to having some sort of private conversation with Adrien. Of course, only Ivan was behind her, and he was snoring peacefully through the lecture. Which lead to the obvious conclusion that, yes, Adrien was trying to talk to her for some reason.

This was either going to be really good, or quite terrible. 

“Y-yes?” she replied in a whisper, eyes scanning the front of the class nervously for reprimand.

He shook his head, still smiling, and gestured toward Ms. Mendeleiev, who was still occupied with the chalkboard. Instead of speaking, he turned and retrieved a scrap of paper from his bag, hastily marked something down, and passed it to her. As he slid it across her desk, he shot a friendly wink in her direction, and returned to classwork.

The entire exchange, if it could be called that, took about 5 seconds, and Marinette felt as though she were going to have a heart attack. Her heart hammered in her chest so loudly that she half feared it might be audible to the entire class. Mouth dry, hands shaking, she took the note and opened it.

Can we talk after class? I have something a bit awkward to ask you!  read the note. It was punctuated with a hastily drawn smiley face, as though to reassure her. 

Marinette tugged on Alya’s sleeve and slid the note toward her, unable to speak.

Now, Marinette couldn’t focus on the lecture  or her designs. Her mind was a lovingly rendered portrait of Adrien, and nothing else. It was as though all thoughts had been scrubbed from her brain. When class was five minutes from ending, however, the portrait faded in favor of every single insecurity she had.

True, it seemed like this was a setup for Adrien to confess feelings for her--but when did things ever work out like that in real life? More likely he was going to ask if she could move seats in class so that someone cooler could sit close to him. Or he was going to ask if she could do his homework since he’d be so busy with photoshoots this upcoming week. Maybe he’d ask if Alya was single and he could date her. Maybe he wanted to know if he’d look cute with Chloe. Maybe, maybe, maybe--there were too many possibilities and there was exactly one outcome that would come out favorably for Marinette.

She wondered if it were ethical to try to use Lucky Charm to increase her chances of success.

The bell rang indicating that class was over, and she nearly jumped out of her seat in shock. She had gone from being delighted to miserable in less than five minutes, and she knew that no matter what Adrien asked of her, it would be a rollercoaster of emotions from here on out. Alya patted her back encouragingly and gave her two hopeful thumbs up.

Marinette smiled back at her friend, glad to have such a stalwart supporter, and knew that if Adrien asked if he should date Alya, she would absolutely say yes. The two best people she knew outside of costume should definitely be together, if neither of them could be with her.

She began to pack up, waiting for Adrien to call for her to ask whatever disastrous question that he thought she might be able to answer. 

He beckoned her into the hallway, and with much dread, she shrugged on her backpack and followed him. Nino and Alya stayed in the class behind them, politely giving their friends some space to talk.

Marinette stood stiff as a board, heels clicked together, as though she were a soldier standing at attention. Her fingernails nearly punctured the straps of her backpack as she gripped them in anxiety, and she closed her eyes in anticipation.

“Relax, Marinette,” Adrien said, putting a friendly hand on her shoulder. 

Somehow, she stiffened even more. “You had a question for me?” she asked, her voice tremulous.

“Sorry for this whole cloak and daggers routine, I just didn’t want to get yelled at by Ms. Mendeleiev, and I’m sure you didn’t want any more attention in class. Sorry, by the way, for that,” he began, rubbing his hand along the back of his neck.

“Oh! It’s okay, I promise!” she said, waving her hands nervously. “It’s my fault I wasn’t paying attention in class!”

“You’re so nice, Marinette,” Adrien said, smiling comfortably at her. She could feel her face getting hotter, but was powerless to stop the pink blush from spreading across her cheeks. “Which is why I want to ask you a pretty big favor.”

“G-go on,” she said, daring to get her hopes up once more. 

 

* * *

 

She looked up at him, eyes encouraging and hopeful, and Adrien just kept smiling. Perhaps he was on the right path with this. If anyone would be willing to sacrifice their time and possibly reputation to help someone else, it would be Marinette. She was always getting put into situations which couldn’t be fun for such a shy girl, but she always managed to pull through and perform her best for the sake of the group. There wasn’t a selfish bone in the girl’s body.

“Well, you know how Chloe is always bugging me? Nino and I thought of a way to get her to cut that out, and maybe get all the girls who like me off my back,” he began, and he watched her eyes widen in confusion. He’d best get this over with, so she could stop guessing at what he wanted. “If I had a girlfriend, they’d leave me alone. So uh--”

All the blush that had been filling her cheeks seemed to drain from her face at once. Was it shock? Was it anger? He suddenly began to regret asking her--it really was too much!

“Y-you want me to be your girlfriend?” she asked, her voice scarcely above a whisper.

“Well, sortof?” he said, grimacing with discomfort. She clearly wasn’t amenable to the idea of being his girlfriend, but he’d gone this far, and he had to keep going. “It would be an arrangement. We’d pretend to be dating so that people would leave me alone,” he explained. “I know it’s a lot to ask from you, but if you wanted me to do something for you in exchange I totally would!”

She gulped. She blinked once, twice, hard. She shook her head.

“I’m sorry I--” he began, hoping he could backpedal away from this and pretend it had never happened.

“I’ll do it!” she said, a smile stretching her face. “If it helps you, I’d love to. You don’t need to do anything for me.”

He smiled and let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much,” he said, putting both of his hands on her shoulders. He could feel her tense up, and then relax under his hands. She was so uncomfortable with him, he couldn’t fathom why she’d agreed to help, but he was glad. “I appreciate this so much, Marinette. You’re a real friend.”

With that, he began to walk back into class to collect Nino.

“Wait!” she said, reaching out for him. When he turned, she blushed bright pink again, and stammered for a moment before she managed, “If we’re going to do this, we’ll need to exchange phone numbers.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative title for this fic? 'Anything for a Furrend' :3
> 
> Anyway, you guys were so sweet! And I have enough ideas I think I can pull this off for a few chapters. If any of you have suggestions or something you'd like to see, specifically, please let me know because I don't have this so specifically plotted out that I wouldn't benefit from hearing what you like!

“I have to admit, it’s not what I expected after reading that note,” Alya said, looking at the note once more.

Marinette slouched in her desk chair and heaved a dramatic sigh. “Well, it’s not the worst that could have happened, you know? It’s...close to what I wanted, anyway.

Alya stepped toward Marinette and pulled her out of her seat into a hug. “Don’t worry, it’ll work out for the best!” she said, holding her best friend at arm’s length. “This way he’ll get to know you, I mean really know you, and he’ll fall for you anyway!”

Marinette smiled. “Maybe you’re right,” she said, and it felt like a lie.

Alya looked at her, full of sympathy, but her attention was jerked away by the sound of screaming outside Marinette’s window. Alya leapt over to the window and opened it wide, astonished to see an akuma victim reminiscent of a moth flapping by the window, cackling hysterically as she pointed her camera at people. Each click of the camera and a person disappeared, somehow getting sucked up into the lens.

“I need to go!” Alya said, grabbing her cell phone and bag. “Ladybug’s gonna be out there any second now! You coming?”

Marinette waved her hands feebly. “Go on. You know how much I hate violence!”

As soon as Alya was out the door, Tikki flew out of Marinette’s purse, and the partners in justice nodded at one another. It was time to transform.

Moments later, Ladybug was on the rooftop, chasing down the latest victim of catastrophe in Paris. The moth girl was small with dark skin and curly blonde hair. Her colour scheme reminded Ladybug of mints or the moon, but she didn’t seem familiar other than that. At least Chloe hadn’t likely caused this akuma, Ladybug reflected. She really knew how to take advantage of small blessings.

She leapt from rooftop to rooftop, chasing after Flashdance as fast as she could without the aid of flight. The moth woman whirled and laughed, focusing her lens on the superherione. Ladybug yelped, and nearly had her picture taken, when a blur of black and blonde pushed her out of the way.

Flashdance growled in frustration, and flew away. “You won’t be getting in the way of me taking back what was taken from me!” she said as she dwindled into the distance.

“Miss me, My Lady?” Chat Noir said, helping Ladybug up.

“You’re lucky you didn’t get snapped!” she replied, glaring in the moth’s general direction.

“If any woman snaps me up, it’s going to be you,” he replied, grinning capriciously.

She rolled her eyes. “You’re going to have to stop saying things like that, Chat,” she told him. “She’s taking photos of people, and wants to take something back...Wasn’t there a popular photography exhibition on the other side of town? Maybe she’s the photographer from that.”

“It’s as good a place as any to start,” he replied with a shrug, and they were off.

 

* * *

 

 

“The Galerie de Agathe,” Chat Noir said as they approached the unassuming building they had traced the photographer to. “It doesn’t look like much but she must purretty talented to get her work showcased here.”

Ladybug laughed despite herself at his pun--which wasn’t even one of his better ones--but remained focused on the mission at hand. “Are you familiar with it?” she asked.

He shrugged. His father liked to believe himself a patron of the arts, despite never actually showing up to these kinds of galleries. He sent Nathalie and Adrien in his stead, and so Adrien got a pretty healthy dose of contemporary art in Paris. He obviously couldn’t explain all of that to Ladybug, so he settled for, “I know it well enough.”

Before the conversation could be finished, Flashdance herself showed up, dragging a 20something year old hipster by his scarf.

“That doesn’t look good,” Ladybug said dubiously. “We should get in there!”

“I love it when you read my mind,” Chat Noir agreed, and they leapt down from their perch to deal with the akuma victim and the akuma victim’s victim.

The fight from there on was pretty straight forward. Flashdance had trapped the young man in the gallery, forcing him to look at photos that he apparently did not take, but had stolen from her online gallery. The heroes couldn’t exactly condone the actions, but an akuma victim was an akuma victim nonetheless. After destroying part of the ground Flashdance was standing upon, forcing her to flap into flight with very little warning, her camera swung out from her neck, and Ladybug used her red and black spotted scissors to slice the lanyard keeping the camera fastened to Flashdance.

With a solid stomp, the camera was broken, and the akuma was purified. Flashdance turned to a teenage girl with red glasses, simply looking baffled at what was going on. Chat and Ladybug completed their customary fist bump, and fled the scene of the crime.

“You really are something, you know,” Chat said, grinning at Ladybug.

“You really have to stop saying things like that,” Ladybug replied, sticking her tongue out at him.

“Why? I mean them!”

“Because…” she paused, and she looked away, conflict in her face. “I have a boyfriend.”

It was like a punch in the stomach for Chat Noir. On one hand, he was devastated, but on the other he couldn’t quite figure out why he was so saddened by this news. Someone as bold and as beautiful as Ladybug had to have a hundred boys chasing her, and surely it was not too much to imagine that one of them had wormed their way into her heart. Still, now he could imagine what Copycat had felt all that time ago.

His shock only showed on his face for a moment, before he smiled. Perhaps (purrhaps) he thought, he could make use of his situation with Marinette in his alter ego lifestyle as well.

“How do you know I don’t have a girlfriend?” he asked.

From the look on her face, the idea hadn’t occurred to her. Hurtful, but fair, he supposed. After all, he hadn’t imagined that she might ever have a boyfriend.

“You’re such a terrible flirt!” she admonished, swatting him lightly. “If you have a girlfriend then you can’t go around talking like this!”

He laughed. “Well, maybe I don’t have a girlfriend. Anyway, why do you need a boyfriend when you’ve already got a catfriend,” he said, leaning close.

She pushed him away, as she always did. “I don’t want to end up a crazy cat lady, now do I?” At the near simultaneous beeps of their Miraculous, she waved him farewell, and trotted off to detransform somewhere he couldn’t see her.

In his room, later, he sat back at his desk and sighed. He’d pulled up information on Alya’s Ladyblog, which reported Ladybug and Chat Noir acting friendly throughout their take down of Flashdance. Alya theorized that Chat and Ladybug knew each other outside of their identities, to support their camaraderie in combat.

“If only,” Adrien sighed.

“This is why I don’t bother with girls,” Plagg said around a mouthful of cheese. “Dairy products don’t leave me for better cats.”

“He really must be something great,” Adrien mused. “After all our time together, all I’ve gotten is a kiss when I was unconsciously trying to kill her.”

“Maybe he’s richer than you,” Plagg said, and promptly went into a food-coma.

Adrien shook his head, and sat forward to resume looking through Alya’s blog when his phone rumbled. A text from Marinette, it seemed. He smiled and opened it, glad to remember that despite the love of his life seeing someone else, at least he had good friends to keep him company.

**[Text From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng @ 5:19 PM]**  
**Hey Adrien! I have some questions about this arrangement of ours. I hope it’s not too much trouble! Thank you! I hope you’re doing well!**

She texted like a grandmother, he noted. It was, in it’s own way, pretty adorable. And it was only natural that she be curious about how this ought to work--he himself did not quite know, yet.

**[Text To: Marinette Dupain-Cheng @ 5:20 PM]**  
**I think we can figure it out as we go, so don’t worry too much. We just have to pretend to be a bit more physically close in a bf-gf way I think. Are you ok with that? like i might have to touch your shoulders or smthn**

He took his phone with him and laid down on his bed. He tried to picture going into class the next day with Marinette, arm around her shoulders. He went so far as to imagine kissing her cheek before he became too embarrassed for his mental story to continue. He covered his face with his hands. How was he going to do this without feeling like he was going to make Marinette massively uncomfortable, not to mention feeling like he was two-timing Ladybug.

But how could he be two-timing someone who wasn’t interested in him? She had a boyfriend now and...ah, but he was still faithful to her. He couldn’t believe himself.

**[Text From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng @ 5:28 PM]**  
**Whatever it takes to help you!**

Adrien looked at his phone curiously. She’d taken quite a while for such a short text. He supposed she was busy designing fashion or hanging out with Alya or whatever it was she did. With a jerk, he realized that he would have to know what she did. If someone smart like Chloe asked why he’d decided to start dating Marinette, he would need to have a reason.

**[Text To: Marinette Dupain-Cheng @ 5:30 PM]**  
**Hey do u thinkg we should come up with a reason why we’re dating? Like if someone asks. i’d say something like ‘she’s really pretty and kind and good at designs!’ which sounds believable because all of that is true ;) but whatre u gonna say so it doesnt sound like i blackmailed you**

 

* * *

 

**[Text From: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 5:30 PM]**  
**Hey do u thinkg we should come up with a reason why we’re dating? Like if someone asks. i’d say something like ‘she’s really pretty and kind and good at designs!’ which sounds believable because all of that is true ;) but whatre u gonna say so it doesnt sound like i blackmailed you**

Her heart pounded in her chest. First of all, she couldn’t believe that she was just casually texting Adrien. Every fibre of her being was telling her that this was too good to be true. She’d hit her head and was in the hospital, dreaming about Adrien feeling close enough to her to send her texts full of typos and winky faces. But reality was there--this was all a facade. An elaborate fake to keep him distant from other girls.

Still, she couldn’t help but be more than thrilled when he described her as ‘pretty, kind, and great at designs.’ It sounded so genuine...but perhaps he was just a better actor than even she’d given him credit for. With his acting skills and her genuine feelings, this ruse would be easy to pull off.

Marinette sighed and thought about how to respond to this text. Should she really just list out the things that were wonderful about Adrien? She couldn’t--he’d catch on to her real motive for pretending to date him, and would never trust her again. She clutched her phone to her chest and wished Alya were there to help compose this text--but Alya was busy with her Ladyblog. With a small smile, she wondered how Alya would react upon finding out that she was devoting all of her freetime blogging about her best friend.

She had read Alya’s latest update as it came out, always trying to figure out what conclusion Alya had leapt to this week so that she could continue steering her assumptions away from the truth. This time, Alya thought that Ladybug knew Chat Noir in day to day life. Marinette supposed it was possible, but she simply didn’t know anyone that obnoxiously flirtatious.

She’d felt a little guilty, telling Chat that she had a boyfriend. It was technically true, but it felt so much like a lie--and the look upon Chat’s face was unbearably pitiful. He’d recovered quickly, but she still couldn’t help but feel like her words had taken one of his nine lives.

 _“How do you know I don’t have a girlfriend?”_ he’d said, grinning wide.

Marinette wondered now if he did have a girlfriend. Was there some lucky lady who had no idea that he was spending his time by Ladybug’s side? Maybe he really was just a flirt and all his kind words were typical for him. Maybe it was just that that had his girlfriend love him so much.

For a reason Marinette couldn’t quite put her finger on, the idea disturbed her.

“Are you going to answer?” Tikki said, bringing Marinette’s attention back to her phone.

“What do I even say, Tikki? He’s going to think I’m stupid, or boring, or crazy or...worse, he’ll think I’m in love with him,” she complained, staring at the text message once more.

“Is that really so bad? He’s clearly fond of you!” Tikki insisted.

Marinette sighed. “He told me I’m a good friend today,” she admitted. “He only sees me as a friend.”

“Friendship is a better basis for a relationship than being enemies, don’t you think?” Tikki said, smiling beatifically. “Just say something nice! He’ll appreciate it!”

Marinette nodded with renewed determination.

**[Text To: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 5:45 PM]**  
**Easy, I’ll talk about how much I admire your modeling. Is that convincing enough or too bland? :-)**

Hands shaking, she put her phone down in her lap.

“What do you think, Tikki?” she asked.

“I would have talked about his beautiful green eyes,” Tikki said, giggling.

**[Text From: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 5:46 PM]**  
**Nothing about how i’m a “cool guy” or anything, huh? oh well :p i’ll see you tomorrpw at school!**

Marinette clutched her phone to her chest, blushing bright pink despite the fact that nobody was there to see it, and fell back onto her bed. It was simply too much for her to handle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to tumblr user torieliest for letting me use her akuma oc, and thanks to everyone who left such kind comments both here and on tumblr! 
> 
> Oh, and, Galeria de Agathe is totally made up as far as I know. It just kinda translates to "Agatha's Gallery" but it sounds fancy because...french.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may not feel like a complete chapter but it was getting long, and I'd like to maintain approximately the same length per chapter. This is *almost* a filler chapter as far as shippy plot, but it does introduce some tension with our favorite antagonist, who we love to hate, Chloe! And, be prepared for Adrien winking a lot. It feels excessive but given that he's winked at Marinette in almost all of their canon interactions, I don't feel too bad about it. He's a serial winker.

By the time Adrien got to class, Marinette was already there. She was speaking animatedly to Alya, gesticulating as if there were no tomorrow. He smiled to himself--it would be easy to pretend they were dating as long as she kept being adorable, right? He dropped his bag off at his seat and walked up the extra step to where she was sitting, just in time to hear the end of her conversation with Alya.

“--it was like something out of a dream! I wish I had ideas as bold as that. I keep coming up with the same things, shirts, dresses...every day wear. But nothing that would go on a runway and make people gasp,” Marinette was saying, finishing with a heavy sigh.

Hesitating slightly, he came up behind her and threw his arms over her shoulders, placing his head next to hers. He couldn’t see her face well, and for that he was glad, because he could only imagine the reactive grimace. True to form, she tensed, realized who it was, and tensed even worse before she remembered that they had agreed to this sort of behaviour.

“Hey...Princess,” he said, after casting about for a bit for an appropriate pet name. “I hate to eavesdrop, but I think your designs are awe inspiring.”

“Th-th-thank you, Adrien,” she said, slowly disengaging with him to turn and face him.

He stepped back, hands proudly on hips, before he realized that the stance really only worked for him as Chat Noir. He crossed his arms instead, trying not to look completely nervous. He’d never had a girlfriend before, and he wasn’t sure how to behave with a fake one.

“You’re welcome,” he said after a pause that was too long to be entirely natural, winking at her. “How did you sleep last night?”

Marinette looked nervously behind him, very likely checking for Chloe’s attention. Adrien wanted to peek as well, to see if the ruse was working, but to do that would require a full 180 degree turn, and would look completely unnatural.

“I slept grood! I mean good! Great!” Marinette bumbled out, and her nervousness worked to actually soothe his nerves.

He leaned forward, and put a hand on her shoulder encouragingly, as he had done so many times in the past. “Relax,” he said quietly. And then, louder, “People are gonna find out about us sooner or later anyway.”

“Do you mean to tell me that you two are...what, dating?” came a familiar voice from behind him. He closed his eyes in satisfaction. Well, at least she’d noticed.

Adrien turned, effectively forming a shield between Chloe and Marinette. Chloe stood with arms crossed, a disgusted expression on her face, with Sabrina behind her, echoing the stance.

“Yeah, we are,” he said calmly, and extended a hand toward Marinette without looking at her. She took the hand, and he felt his pulse increase. _You’re a real smooth operator, huh?_ he thought. _Getting nervous from holding hands with a girl. Very slick_. “Why do you ask, Chloe?”

“This is a joke, right?” Chloe asked, but her confidence was wearing thin as her blue eyes locked on Marinette and Adrien’s intertwined fingers. “Some elaborate scheme to trick me, specifically. How long has this been going on?”

Adrien smiled, hoping he wouldn’t give away exactly how accurate Chloe’s assumption had been.

“We’ve been dating for a while now,” Marinette interrupted. Both of them turned to look at her, and her face looked just as surprised as Chloe’s. “W-we just wanted to keep it a secret because we knew his fans would be so upset…?” Her statement ended more as a question, and she looked to Adrien for approval.

“But I couldn’t stand the secrecy,” he corroborated. “She thought it would be better for my career if nobody knew about us...but I care about her too much to keep her in the shadows.”

His hand tightened on hers, and she smiled up at him.

“I don’t believe it,” Chloe said, and stormed off to her seat.

“I should get to my seat too...Princess,” Adrien said, winking as he detached his hand from Marinette’s and moved to sit down.

As he sat, he felt that his palms were sweaty. His left hand, anyway, could be explained by holding Marinette’s doubtlessly sweaty hand. But both hands were equally slick. He passed it off as nerves, having to lie directly to someone’s face like that. He may have been a model and a superhero, but he was no actor. He was infinitely glad that Marinette had chipped in, her quick thinking likely having saved the day.

He felt compelled to turn and look at her, to see how she was dealing with the aftermath of their first confrontation. In a way, it was like a relationship milestone. He smiled to himself, amused at his own line of thought, but decided against turning toward her. Even if they were fictionally dating, he didn’t want her to think he was _too_ interested in her and get uncomfortable.

 

* * *

 

“Should I be checking your pulse right now? Do you need to see the nurse?” Alya whispered, poking at Marinette’s side.

“I’m not sure,” Marinette breathed. “Am I alive right now? Did I get hit by a car on the way to school?”

“If heaven is first period French Lit then I refuse to ever die,” Alya said, chuckling to herself. “That was pretty slick. Since when do you know how to lie?”

Marinette paled, her eyes widening. “I don’t!” she said.

“You could have fooled me,” Alya teased. “Anyway, I think you really impressed him! Good going, girl!”

“You really think so? He wasn’t weirded out?” she fretted quietly.

“Maybe weirded out by how amazing you are!” Alya replied quickly, but the conversation was cut short by their teacher entering the class.

At their next break between classes, Adrien turned around and put his elbow on her desk, startling her out of a reverie created by absolute mindless daydreams. Her eyes widened and her face turned pink, as though she were still startled by his very presence. Part of her knew that she would have to get over that eventually, but part of her felt like it would go on forever.

He smiled at her, his green eyes flashing like leaves in sunlight, and her heart nearly stopped in her chest. A nervous smile tugged its way across her face in response, and she had to fight the urge to giggle senselessly--he was looking at her, with eyes only for her, with that gentle smile. Three days ago this would have been unfathomable.

“You don’t mind that I call you Princess, right?” he asked, ruffling the back of his hair.

“I don’t mind at all!” she blurted out, louder and quicker than she’d intended, and immediately bit her tongue. “I mean, I think it’s good. Uh, it’s less...you know, bland than sweetie or something so it seems more...legitimate,” she said, stammering over her words.

“Hey, Marinette, why don’t you have a pet name for me?” he asked, putting his hand on hers. She saw the momentary hesitation of his movement, as though he was afraid to touch her, but he made up his mind quickly, and his warm hand was on hers before she had time to pull away.

“Wh-what would you like to be called?” she asked, eyes locked on his hand.

“I suppose Prince would be too obvious,” he mused. “You’re awfully clever, Marinette; do you have any ideas?”

Her face flushed even darker pink than it had been just moments before. While someday she might become accustomed to his presence, she doubted that she’d ever grow used to compliments from him. It was too much for her heart to deal with all at once.

“I-I’m sure one will come to me the longer we’re ‘together’,” she managed, just barely.

“You two are so cute together,” Alya remarked, saving Marinette from whatever hell she was trapped in.

Adrien turned to look at Alya with a satisfied expression, and Marinette wondered where the satisfaction was coming from. Was he under the impression that he’d tricked Alya? She didn’t think of him as having an ego, so it couldn’t be from getting called cute. She could only imagine the reaction from someone with a bigger ego--Chat Noir came to mind. Saying he was cute would just fan the flames of...his entire everything. A small smile came to her face at the thought of his antics. Perhaps she’d have to try complimenting him out of the blue sometime and see what flips he’d do in reaction.

She was stirred out of this thought by Adrien standing and leaning over her desk to put his face directly next to hers. He was so close that their cheeks were almost touching, with his lips adjacent to her ear. Her blush was automatic, and she just knew he would be able to feel the heat radiating from her face.

“I have a question about our arrangement,” he said, his voice so low it sounded almost like a purr. Chills ran up her spine.

“Sh-should we be whispering like this?” she breathed, honestly shocked she was able to  keep it together this well. “It’ll look suspicious.”

“I think it’ll look intimate,” he responded in kind. “Does Alya know about..this?”

She went to nod, and stopped as she realized that he would have to somehow sense her movement as his eyes were presumably locked on the far wall. “I told her. I-is that alright? I won’t tell anyone else!”

Adrien chuckled, his laugh hot on her ear. She felt as though she may faint. “Nino knows too, so it’s only fair. I just wanted to know how much pretending I had to do around her.”

He withdrew with a wink, and returned to his seat.

Marinette was still frozen in place, the colour of a strawberry (or a ladybug) as Adrien returned to casual conversation with Nino. She was a strong girl, and she was brave, when the situation called for it, but dealing with Adrien touching her was...an extreme circumstance. The only people who casually touched her quite so often were Alya and Chat Noir.

She was stirred out of her reverie by the thought of her bragging to Chat Noir about how affectionate her ‘boyfriend’ was to her. Would he say that his girlfriend was just as lovey dovey? Would he try to prove that he was the most affectionate ‘catfriend’ of all? Without a doubt, he would cause a scene, and it was just the type of thing she knew she shouldn’t encourage.

Adrien seemed content to ignore her for the rest of the class, apparently satisfied that this display would be enough to keep Chloe off his back, which allowed Marinette to actually make an attempt to focus on schoolwork. Ever since she’d been accused of stealing Chloe’s bracelet, she’d become accustomed to Chloe’s occasional glares, so it wasn’t much of a distraction.

It wasn’t until lunch that Chloe made a second display of...rejection, was it? Pure rage? Hard to say. Marinette was bent down, packing her things into her bag, and when she straightened, Chloe was there. She had one hand on her hip, the other clenched into a fist at her side, and her expression was undiluted disgust.

“If you keep making that face you’ll get wrinkles, Chloe,” Marinette said casually, pulling her bag into her lap.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chloe spat. “I use the best moisturizer money can buy. Honestly, it’s probably worth more than your pathetic little bakery.” Before Marinette could respond, Chloe slammed a hand on the desk in front of her. “Now what kind of blackmail do you have on Adrien that he’s pretending to date you? If you tell me what secrets you’ve found out about him, transfer ownership of them to me, I’ll _won’t_ have my father expel you.”

“You can’t do that!” Alya interjected, now standing as well.

Marinette would have loved to be out of this situation, but as it was, she was bookended by two tall girls who were both forces of nature unto themselves.

“Maybe I can’t, but my father can!” Chloe snapped.

“It would be a gross misuse of power, and I would put it on my blog for everyone to see! Your father would never get elected again!”

Marinette stared straight ahead, trying to think happy thoughts, when Adrien stepped back in, presumably after something he’d forgotten. He took one look at the three girls, and paled. Some part of her had hoped he would interject, but Adrien was not the sort of trouble maker to butt his head into every fight he saw. In fact, usually when there was trouble, he was nowhere to be found. It was that kind of wise self preservation which had made her love him so.

After a moment’s hesitation, he did approach. His expression changed from one of doubt to complete confidence, and he grinned wide at Marinette. He didn’t so much as look at Chloe, despite having to tap her on the shoulder and move her out of the way to move toward his fake-girlfriend. He extended a hand toward Marinette.

“Come on, I thought you’d forgotten our lunch date,” he said, winking. She swallowed hard and took his hand. He pulled her to her feet, and smiled at Alya, still utterly ignoring Chloe. “We’ll see you around, Alya!”

The two left the classroom, and as soon as they were out of Chloe’s sight, he dropped her hand. She leaned against the wall in the hallway, touching the sides of her face as she shook her head. She did not truly know if Chloe had the power to expel her, but it was more than distressing to think about.

“She thinks I’m blackmailing you,” she said at long last, remembering that Adrien was there, looking on curiously.

He laughed, and she looked up at him sharply. How could he be so carefree about this? The one person they were meant to fool was also the only one who suspected that this was a ruse!

“I’m sorry, it’s just...it’s more like I’m blackmailing you. Or, maybe bribery is more accurate. Come on, that looked stressful,” he said, beckoning her to follow. “I’ll buy lunch.”

“You really want to? I thought you were just saying that to get me out of there,” Marinette stammered.

“Hey, this wouldn’t be much of a bribery if I didn’t spend any money, would it?” Adrien replied, grinning. “Where do you want to eat?”

Marinette followed him out of the building, shocked dumb by his generosity and then shocked numb by the fact that he expected her to climb into a limousine just for some lunch. Still, she complied, unsure of what else to do in this situation. Her parents had taught her many rules of etiquette and politeness, but none of them covered fake-dating a millionaire. Maybe there was a wikihow somewhere on the internet with step by step illustrated directions on how to handle it.

She settled in next to him, shrinking into herself under the studious but neutral gaze of the limo driver, and buckled in.

“We don’t have to go anywhere expensive,” she said, barely above a whisper.

“Hmm…” Adrien mused, thinking of places they could eat. “Marinette, would you rather eat Italian today or a matter baby?”

Without thinking, she responded, “What’s a matter baby?”

He turned and pointed some finger guns at her with an over the top wink. “Nothing, sweetie, what’s the matter with you?”

She began to laugh, and snorted, loudly. She covered her face in embarrassment, but now the giggles had gotten to her, and she just couldn’t quite quit. Adrien’s more than pleased expression didn’t help--how could someone like him think a joke like that was genuinely funny? It was too absurd!

“You’re a dork!” she replied at last, somewhat aghast at her own accusation.

“Ah, but this dork made you laugh! Relax, Marinette. Today’s my treat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will have more Chat and Lady, not to mention a lot more Love Square confusion. Once again, if you have anything specific you'd like to see in this fic, just let me know in comments or via message or whatever. I live to serve ;)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably won't be posting this frequently forever, but I don't work a lot this week so I'm writing while I have inspiration! Anyway, here's chapter 4! It needs fairly little introduction :3

Adrien hated the way Marinette seemed to be so...small when he was around. When he spotted her talking to Alya or even to Chloe, her stance was entirely different--she was bold, and she held her own in a conversation. Even when he’d dropped in as Chat Noir she’d been comfortable in her own skin, and daring enough to nearly trick Evillustrator into handing over his akuma. The only conclusion he could arrive at is that she really did not like him, and was too polite to tell him that she was uncomfortable and to leave.

It was so selfish of him to have asked her to do this when she so clearly loathed him. But they’d both committed to this, and he was going to do his best to put her at ease. Given that his only real friends were Nino and Ladybug, he figured that the way to her heart (or at least her friendship) was with bad jokes. Nothing was as uniting as laughing together over a genuinely terrible pun, he was sure.

So when Marinette’s eyes widened and she contorted with laughter, so much that she even snorted, there weren’t words to cover his delight. Surely, this and some free food would smooth over whatever he’d done to upset her so.

They arrived at a small diner, not too far from the school so that they could return before the hour was through. It was a diner Adrien was fond of for school lunches--as he never lacked for money, and he didn’t expect Nathalie to pack him a home lunch, he liked to take Nino here whenever Nino wasn’t too caught up with filming his latest thought experiment. The owner knew him by name, and not because of his modeling. It made him feel welcome and warm, glad to not only be Gabriel Agreste’s son, but his own person, a patron of small diners and a good tipper.

After all, he was either Gabriel Agreste’s son, Ladybug’s sidekick, or nobody most of the time. He glanced at Marinette, seated across from him at the small table, and added ‘Marinette’s boyfriend’ to his list.

Marinette was staring around the restaurant with wonder in her eyes, attempting to take everything in. The way her eyes flitted from object to object in the room almost made it look like she was looking for an escape. He wanted to put a hand on hers and assure her that she should relax, but seeing as every time he’d even come close to touching her she’d tensed up like a deer in headlights, he thought better of it.

Their waiter, a kind looking man in his mid thirties, stopped by and filled their glasses with water.

“Can I interest you in our lunch special, kids?” he asked, his eyes crinkling as he smiled. Adrien recognised him--he’d worked in this restaurant as long as Adrien had come, and he always seemed to be ready with a smile. He seemed to have pride in being a waiter.

Before Adrien or Marinette could answer, another voice came from across the restaurant.

“Waiter! Chop chop, not all of us are paid to flip burgers and stand around!”

The waiter’s face fell for a moment as he turned, but he plastered on a false smile as he reassured the teenagers that he’d be right back.

“Oh, I hate people that are rude to waiters,” Marinette said, her face scrunching up as the waiter walked away.

“I’m with you,” Adrien replied, shaking his head.

Marinette smiled at him, then, her cheeks very slightly pinker than usual (or was that his imagination?), before she turned and buried her face in the menu, obstructing his view. He stared at the back of the menu for a while, wishing he could see whatever expression she was making. Marinette had the bluest eyes, he’d noticed, and whenever she looked at him it was as though they were trying to communicate a message. So imploring, but what did she want from him? He would never be able to put his finger on it unless he asked, but how did one ask what one’s eyes were after?

It was a foolish train of thought, and he abandoned it, opening his menu as well.

A crash was heard from across the restaurant, accompanied by an older man hurling insults at the kind waiter who had seen to them just moments before. The older man had thrown his glass of water at the server, forcing him to stumble back and crash into a chair, while the customer ranted and raved about how useless he was.

Marinette began to rise to her feet to defend him--how curious, that such a timid girl would be willing to leap in for the sake of others--but the waiter fled the restaurant, tears in his eyes. Marinette sat down with a thump, angry eyes still staring at the one loudmouth customer who was trying to ruin everybody’s day.

Adrien only wished he could transform into Chat Noir to beat up normal jerks, instead of just super powered ones. He unclenched his fist and resolved to ignore him--as he always tried to do with bullies. Sometimes it worked, after all.

“I hope he’ll be okay,” Marinette murmured, turning to look at the door.

Moments later, the door banged open and Adrien turned to see what had caused the expression of pure shock on his date’s face. A man who was very clearly under the influence of an akuma, dressed up like a pure chrome version of a 60’s style superhero, had kicked down the door and was rather deliberately posing.

“I’m the Silver Server, and you should know better than to think you can do a better job than I!” he announced, and immediately chucked the platter he had in hand at the rude customer. It was like a sharp frisbee, and the older man only barely dodged it. Rather than collecting the platter anew, it shimmered and regenerated right into the Silver Server’s hand.

As soon as Adrien set eyes on the shiny chrome cape of the akuma victim, he knew he had to get out of there. He turned to Marinette, who was already out of her seat.

“You need to leave!” she said, pushing him out of the door. He was too shocked at her initiative (and willingness to touch him) to do anything but comply. “It’s not safe, you need to run!”

“You do too!” he insisted.

She nodded firmly and sprinted in the opposite direction, just as he ducked into an alleyway to transform.

 

* * *

 

Ladybug skidded and rolled back into the restaurant, with Chat Noir hot on her heels. She grinned at him and faced the Silver Server with determination.

Her first ‘date’ with Adrien had not exactly been what she’d daydreamed about, but as Ladybug, she had no real time to bemoan her fate as Adrien’s fake girlfriend. She could only hope he’d gotten to safety. The thought of him being, what, decapitated? By this akuma victim was too much for her.

She gestured toward Chat, and he dutifully came close enough that they could talk while Silver Server was distracted by trying to chase down his prey.

“This guy’s a waiter here, and the guy he’s chasing is a real jerk,” she said. “I don’t know what his akuma is just yet, but we need to keep him from killing that jerk, alright?”

“As you wish, my Lady,” Chat Noir said, blowing her a kiss as he pounced after the target of the akuma victim. With ease, he picked the man up and tossed him over his shoulders, and ran away to someplace presumably safe.

She rolled her eyes at him, but kept focused on work. She slung her yo-yo at Silver Server, bonking him on the head, and he whirled round at her, tossing frisbee platters at her almost faster than she could flip and dodge them.

“That horrible man isn’t worth all this!” she said once she realized she’d gotten into a corner.

“I can’t help it,” he replied, free hand on hip. “I’m the world’s best waiter, and I’m serving up _just desserts_ for those who don’t appreciate the services people like me provide!”

Ladybug closed her eyes as he wound back to hurl a sharp platter directly at her, with no place to run, but the blow never came. She opened a single eye to see that Chat Noir had restrained the Silver Server by his cape, and was twirling his own tail casually.

“I give points for the word play, but I can’t condone hurting my Lady,” Chat said, grinning cockily.

“Get your hands _off me!_ ” Silver Server roared, yanking his cape from Chat’s grasp.

“A little defensive of that, are you?” Ladybug said, squinting at the cape. “I think the cape’s the akuma!” she called to Chat.

He nodded, and tried to get his paws on the cape immediately once more. Silver Server dodged his claws, and with a firm jump, surged to the ceiling and punched directly through it. He sailed off, leaving Chat Noir and Ladybug open mouthed in his wake.

“I hate it when they can fly,” Chat commented casually.

“Where did you put his target?” Ladybug asked.

“I’ll show you!” Chat pranced off, and she followed close behind, leaping and rolling and narrowly clipping corners. “How did you get here so fast, anyway?” he asked as they ran, turning and shining his green eyes at her.

“I was in the area,” she replied cryptically, smiling. “What about you, alley cat?”

“I was on a date,” he replied, sticking his tongue out at her.

She slowed for a moment, surprised, but picked up her pace again as she realized they’d come to their destination. Sure enough, Silver Server had found his way here as well. The old man was dangling from an ankle as the chrome villain attempted to drag him into the sky.

“It’s time to pay your bill, sir,” he was saying snidely.

Ladybug flung out her yo-yo and got it caught on Silver Server’s leg, and pulled hard. He was pulled back, but refused to drop his target, instead using his free hand to attempt to slice the string of the yo-yo with a platter. Instead, the platter ricocheted off of the string (kwami magic is resilient stuff, after all) and bonked him directly in the face.

He tumbled to the ground from an altitude of some twenty feet, dropping his target. Chat Noir, without instruction, dove forward and caught the unpleasant man rather than letting him fall to surely broken ankles, as Ladybug was tempted to do. Ah, but Chat Noir was like that--always leaping into danger at the drop of a hat to save others. It was that foolish selflessness of his that she was so fond of.

With her yo-yo wrapped tightly around Silver Server’s legs, and him only just coming to from his spill, snatching his cape and ripping it to shreds was child’s play.

Chat Noir left the side of Silver Server’s target, but stalled before fist bumping Ladybug. His face was suddenly very pale. “You didn’t use Lucky Charm!” he said.

“Yeah?” Ladybug replied.

“How are you going to fix everything without a Lucky Charm? You can’t leave that diner with a hole in the roof, can you?”

Eyes wide, she hastily tossed her yo-yo up into the air, calling out her catch phrase, and came back with...another yo-yo.

“Well, I guess this serves the purpose as well as anything else,” she commented, before chucking it back into the sky.

Relieved, the duo fist bumped peacefully before being interrupted by the loud mouth customer of the restaurant who’d caused so many issues to begin with.

“Thank you so much! I’ll tell everyone about how you saved me!” he said, bowing profusely and reaching for their hands.

Both heroes snatched their hands away and grimaced.

“This once, I wouldn’t mind if nobody found out we saved you,” Chat said, laughing. “You’re a bully.”

Ladybug smiled at Chat Noir, ignoring the sputtering sounds coming from the akuma victim’s target. He hadn’t been there to see how awful the man had been, simply trusting her words that he was a jerk and acting on them. She was really glad to have someone who trusted in her as much as Chat did, even if--

“Hey, what’s this about you going on a date?” she demanded, poking Chat’s chest.

“What, am I supposed to wait for you _fur_ ever?” he said, grinning wide. “You got yourself a boyfriend, and since I can’t physically fight him for your affection, I may have found myself someone who cares about me.”

She glared, but pulled back, unsure why she was even so mad at him. Perhaps it was the idea that Chat could just go out and get a girlfriend on a whim, while she’d had to wait patiently for months for so much as a faux relationship with the boy of her dreams.

“Well, good for you, then,” she said, slightly huffily. “I don’t know how hard she must have hit her head to think you’d make a good boyfriend, but I hope the two of you are very happy and the next of your dates can go on without you having to suit up.”

He clutched his chest in mock pain, wheeling back. “You wound me, my Lady! Maybe you’re just jealous!”

“Not on any of your nine lives!” she snapped back playfully, but heard a tell-tale beep of her earrings calling her away.

With a cheerful wave, she backflipped away--just as much of a show off as Chat--until she found a safe place to detransform.

As soon as she was in her civilian clothes, she started to jog toward the school building, whipping out her phone to attempt to text and run at the same time.

 

* * *

 

**[Text From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng @ 12:47 PM]  
Are you alright? When I was running away I didn’t see you follow me! I’m really worried :-( **

Adrien smiled at his phone as he got out of the limo in front of the school. Despite their first ‘date’ going so badly, Marinette was still as kind as ever. She’d quite literally tried to push him to safety, disregarding her own, before running off and assuming that he’d follow. In all honesty, he felt a little bad about presumably abandoning her to his fate.

Well, it was better to play a coward than to reveal his identity, he supposed.

**[Text To: Marinette Dupain-Cheng @ 12:50 PM]  
I’m just fine! i hid in the limo the entire fight...is everythin else ok? i didnt stay around to see how things turned out **

He hated sending those words, realizing how bad they made him look, but he closed his eyes and pressed ‘Send’ anyway. Some part of him definitely wanted Marinette to think he was brave and cool, but he couldn’t sacrifice his identity just to impress a random girl in class, could he?

As he sat down in class, he caught himself in a lie: Marinette was no longer a random girl from class. True or false, she was his girlfriend now. He turned to look at her, possibly with a thumbs up to reassure her that he was completely okay, and was shocked to note that Marinette simply wasn’t there.

**[Text To: Marinette Dupain-Cheng @ 12:52 PM]  
hey where ar you? you’re not hurt or anythign are you?? **

He texted her urgently, suddenly concerned that she’d been skimmed by one of those deadly sharp platters and was bleeding out in a ditch somewhere. Could Ladybug’s Lucky Charm fix damage done to people, too? Was there a range to it? These were questions he’d never thought to ask, for his faith in Ladybug’s power was so complete. If an innocent civilian like Marinette got hurt because of him being too lazy to ask such questions, he could never live with himself.

**[Text From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng @ 12:53 PM]  
You’re so kind to worry about me! Don’t worry, Ladybug and Chat Noir saved the day. I just had to walk all the way from my hiding spot by the diner to school, so I’ll be there in a moment! I’m glad you’re okay! It’s smart to hide when supervillains start rampaging! :-) **

He breathed a sigh of relief and put his phone in his pocket. Marinette was safe, Ladybug was a hero, and he was on time for class. Too bad he hadn’t gotten to eat any lunch, though.

Marinette dove into the classroom a moment later, and sprinted up to her seat. He grinned at her as she came in, always mildly surprised at how fast a girl like her could run when she was late. She waved a tiny, timid little wave at him as she sat down, and immediately pulled out her textbook, apologizing rapidly for being late.

Adrien turned back to face the front, and found himself smiling to himself. _Well, akuma aside, it wasn’t a total disaster of a date_ , he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for so many kind comments, by the way! They totally keep me going to write more and more! This is already the most popular fic I've written, but hopefully it'll just keep getting better and better!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this one I tried to focus more on Adrien's feelings and stuff, because while we all know how Ladybug feels about Chat and Adrien, I wanted more of an opportunity to show Adrien and Marinette's interactions.

Marinette didn’t often have friends over, as her room was relatively small. A converted attic didn’t tend to lend itself toward being spacious in the best of situations, but given that Marinette’s room was filled with dress forms and half completed art projects that friends and family had requested, it was an even tighter squeeze than usual.

It had been five days since she and Adrien had agreed to pretend to be in a relationship, and after some pointed questions from Chloe, they realized that they knew very little about each other. Or, rather, Adrien had come to the conclusion that he had very little information about Marinette. Nino, ever the creative problem solver, had a solution.

And this solution, as it turned out, involved Marinette, Alya, Nino, and Adrien all stuffed into Marinette’s pink attic room. Marinette sat on her bed with Alya right beside her in case of the necessity for emotional support, while Nino lounged on the couch and Adrien took the desk chair. She’d had just enough warning to bolt up and take down every picture of Adrien that she’d tacked to her wall before he’d come in, but she was not entirely sure she’d found them all.

Despite the low key panic over Adrien finding something embarrassing in her room, she still managed to be completely on Cloud 9 at this turn of circumstance. Adrien, the model, the philanthropist, the boy of her dreams was right there, in her desk chair. She could almost cry from how beautiful it was.

“So, what’s the plan here, Nino?” Adrien asked, sliding his phone into his pocket.

Nino took two small whiteboards out of his backpack, accompanied by two dry erase markers, and handed them to Marinette and Adrien respectively. Marinette decidedly did not approve of the wicked gleam in his eye, nor of the fact that Alya seemed to have been clued into the plan.

“We’re going to ask you questions about each other, and you’re both going to write the answer on the board. You’ll reveal it at the same time, and you’ll learn about each other!” Nino announced proudly.

Marinette looked at Alya, panicked. There was no way something good would come of Adrien finding out exactly how much she knew about him. Alya shrugged and patted her on the shoulder reassuringly.

“You’ll both do fine,” Alya said, winking at Marinette. “I think you’ll be surprised at how much you already know about each other!”

“I’m in,” Adrien said, smiling and uncapping his pen. “Give us the first question, bro!”

Nino opened up a notebook he’d been keeping in his bag, and Alya moved from the bed over to the couch so that she could see his questions. Marinette had never felt so abandoned. Still, she uncapped her marker and prepared for the first question.

Alya began, reading off of the list of questions she had no doubt helped put together: “What is Marinette’s favourite animal? Marinette, you write your answer, and Adrien, write what you think the answer is.”

Marinette hastily wrote the word ‘hamsters’ and doodled a quick hamster along with her answer. If she had to do this, she might as well make it cute. When Nino announced that it was time to show their answers, she hesitantly put her board up, as though she were the one being tested.

On Adrien’s board was a caricature of a black cat, no words required.

Alya began to laugh.

Adrien looked at Marinette’s board with a perplexed expression, looked back at his, and squinted at hers. Marintte tried to smile encouragingly, but just the thought of Chat finding out that  anyone presumed that her favourite animal was a cat (a black one, no less!) was...appalling. Additionally, the fact that her brain immediately supplied the alternative word “ _a-paw-lling_ ” put the icing on the cake. She was spending far too much time with that ridiculous alley cat.

“Hamsters, huh?” Adrien said, smiling despite his evident disappointment at being wrong. “I totally had you pegged as a cat lady.”

“Pfft, never,” Marinette replied, shaking her head firmly.

“After you said Chat Noir was cool, I thought it was a natural assumption,” Adrien mused.

“I…” Marinette did not want to get caught in a lie, or expose the fact that she’d been trying to tell Adrien that he was far cooler than that stinky kitty Chat Noir, so she scrambled. “Just because Chat Noir is okay doesn’t make him my favourite,” she explained weakly.

“Next question,” Nino announced, reading from his notebook with an overabundance of pride. “What instrument does Adrien play?”

Easy. Marinette wrote ‘piano’ upon her board and tried to figure out if she knew how to draw a piano, before deciding that she didn’t. The time was soon up, and she proudly displayed her board, which matched Adrien in everything but the handwriting. 

She beamed at him, and he smiled back.

“One point for Marinette!” Nino said, and handed the notebook to Alya.

“Adrien’s turn to try to prove that he didn’t bribe Marinette into being his girlfriend without having done his research!” Alya said playfully. Adrien tugged at his collar nervously. “What is Marinette’s favourite pop singer?”

Marinette thought for a moment. Her absolute favourite? Her eyes turned to the Jagged Stone poster on her wall, and she figured that she may as well pick her most popular fave and give Adrien a chance at getting any points at all. She really ought to take pity on him--even if he had tried to get to know her, she would have clammed up and been unable to make words.

At time’s up, Adrien had just drawn an arrow. Everyone looked at him with varying levels of confusion, until he held up the board and angled it at the same poster Marinette has consulted when deciding who to write down. 

“I cheated,” he explained with an uncharacteristically cocky grin. “I saw her look at the poster before she wrote down her answer. Marinette, never play poker,” he said the last part directly to Marinette, with an air of confidentiality. 

She turned bright pink and laughed nervously. She had been getting used to him more and more the last few days, with him always draping his arm over her shoulders when Chloe glanced their direction, and the occasional offers to buy her things, but whenever he acted truly comfortable with her, she returned to her infantile fangirl state with just a blink.

“You get partial credit for using your environment to your advantage, dude,” Nino decided, making something down on the notebook. “Marinette: What is Adrien’s favourite colour?”

This wasn’t something that was listed on his modeling portfolio online, nor did he ever mention it in casual conversation. He hadn’t ever actually displayed his favourite colour for her to see, at least in any obvious way, so she’d have to guess.

Moments later, Adrien and Marinette both held up boards with the word ‘green’ hastily inscribed upon them. 

“Tell me honestly, Marinette,” Adrien began, squinting suspiciously at her. Her heart leapt to her throat. He was going to ask if she was stalking him, she would stand up to explain that she wasn’t, and she’d trip and accidentally pull down the chart with his schedule on it. Their fake relationship would be over and he would hate her forever. “Are you a mind reader?” he asked, his suspicious face melting into a friendly smile.

She breathed out a sigh of relief, too audible to be natural, and pulled her face into a semblance of a smile. “I just guessed, honestly!” she insisted.

“Alright, next question. Adrien--” Alya began, but was cut off.

“I don’t think we should play this game anymore,” Adrien said, capping his pen and setting his board in his lap. “I know I don’t know much about Marinette, but I think that would be better solved by just chatting with her,” he explained. His mouth quirked oddly as he said ‘chatting,’ and for the life of her, Marinette could not figure out why.

“Aw, but I had like 30 more questions,” Nino protested.

“Why don’t we quiz them once we’ve given them an opportunity to know each other,” Alya suggested. 

“What, are we supposed to wait around while they give speeches about themselves?” Nino asked, looking bored at the very idea. “Listen, dude, I love you like a brother, but I am not invested enough in this arrangement to play chaperone on this playdate.”

Adrien smiled. “I was thinking we could go get lunch.”

 

* * *

 

Adrien decided not to take her to his same diner as he had last time. After the waiter’s akuma fueled outburst, he didn’t want to jinx things by going there twice. They say lightning never strikes the same place twice but, with his luck, he didn’t want to test the theory. Instead, he had his driver take them to a cozy little cafe not far from his home. As a last minute gift for Nathalie’s birthday, he’d once gotten her a cup of coffee and a muffin from the place, and as such, he remembered it fondly.

They sat by the window, across from one another. He smiled, and once again, Marinette looked as though she were casing the joint. Idly, he wondered if the reason she was so often late to school and complaining about late nights was that she was a burglar, but the thought passed as quickly as it came.

“I thought this might make up for our last lunch together,” he said, smiling. “I hope that akuma villain didn’t hurt you at all.”

She smiled and looked up at him, as she always did, with pink cheeks and stars in her eyes. “I’m tougher than you think,” she said, her smile growing.

In the past week they’d almost grown closer--she still stammered and stuttered and often tried to avoid talking to him at all, but she was a bit more comfortable, he hoped. He could tell that there was a part of her that he was being denied access to, and it drove him crazy thinking about. It was like there were two Marinettes: the one he took out to lunch sometimes and forced to hold his hand, and the one who protected the entire class from an attack by demented knights and ran for class president.

It was only fair that she got to have two identities, however, given that Adrien himself had an entirely different alter ego. But to think that Marinette could manage these twin identities as easily as himself, an actual superhero, was impressive to say the least.

“So it seems!” he said, chuckling to himself. “In any case, I’m really sorry things went so poorly. I haven’t had an opportunity to actually bribe you yet, after all.”

She waved it off. “It’s not like you caused the akuma or anything! You’re just a perfect gentleman.”

“Yeah it’s--hey, here’s a first date type of question,” Adrien began, eyeing her carefully. “Have you ever caused an akuma?”

Marinette looked toward the ceiling, deep in consideration. Her face was just too expressive to be real, Adrien thought. When she didn’t know that he had eyes on her, she went through a huge range of emotions in just moments. He hoped she never had to lie; her face would give her away in a second.

“Maybe?” she said at last. “When Nathanael turned into the Evillustrator, it was somewhat based on his feelings for me.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that!” Adrien insisted. “That was all Chloe’s teasing, not you!”

She shrugged. “I could understand feeling that badly about an unrequited crush,” she admitted, looking away from him pointedly. It dawned on him then that she very likely liked someone else, which is why she was so uncomfortable around him. He suddenly felt very bad about trying so hard to get her to enjoy his company. He, too, understood the pain of unrequited pining.

“What about you, though?” she asked, trying to change the subject away from whomever she has a crush on. “Have you ever caused an akuma?”

He didn’t have to think hard; it was a memory worthy of a cringe. “Yeah, actually. I once told a guy I was dating the girl he liked, kinda just to mess with him, and he went more than a little darkside,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

Marinette began to laugh, drawing a confused look from Adrien. She was giggling into her hands, shaking as she tried (unsuccessfully) to contain her laughter. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said between giggles. “But I just can’t imagine you doing something so petty! It reminds me so much of another guy I know.”

Adrien began to laugh too. “Well I’m glad to know I’m not the only one of your friends with questionable morals.”

Her laughter started to die down as she smiled at him. “Trust me, you’re so much better than him. Anyway, it’s kindof a relief to know that you aren’t...entirely perfect.”

As soon as the words escaped her lips, she clamped her hands over her mouth. He was honestly stunned. Every time he talked to her outside of class, he learned something new about Marinette, but he still hadn’t expected that she thought his ego was so big. Did he really give off the vibe that he thought he was perfect? No wonder his dad lectured him so often about his public image, he reflected, if he really came off like such a self righteous jerk.

He averted his eyes, his face falling for a moment, before he plastered on his typical, picture perfect smile, and scrambled to change the subject.

“Inviting you to lunch wasn’t completely without motives,” he admitted, pulling out his phone. Before he could say more, he saw her face seem to drain of colour completely, and her eyes widen. What had he done to make her so fearful of him? He tried to maintain a gentle and shy persona, if not just to confuse those who suspected he was Chat Noir, but to maintain his family’s image. He pressed on anyway: “Chloe knows we’re dating, but every day I still get awkward comments from fangirls who don’t have the same class as us.”

“Oh,” she said quietly, but her colour did not come back into her face. “I don’t think Chloe really believes we’re dating.”

He ran a hand through his hair in irritation. “I know, and she’s the one we really have to trick,” he admitted. “But I think I have an idea that should help both problems.”

“What is it?” she asked with a furrowed brow.

He held out his phone. “We take a selfie together and post it to my official instagram,” he said, smiling. “We make it look appropriately…” he paused, searching for a word that wouldn’t make either of them cringe before settling on “Romantic and people will catch on. Plus, I think Chloe wouldn’t imagine us announcing a fake relationship to hundreds of instagram followers if we were just doing it to trick her, right?”

Marinette stared at him, a smile growing on her face. “I should have known you were brilliant!” she said, before she clapped her hands over her mouth and turned tomato red. “I-I mean, that’s just...just a pretty g-good idea!”

He smiled again, glad to have some measure of praise from someone who suffered so much from spending time with him.

“Come over here,” he beckoned. “I’ll take the picture.”

Hesitantly, she got up out of her seat and walked over to him. Once she was at his side, he could practically feel the tension radiating from her body. He smiled up at her encouragingly, trying to communicate that he wasn’t going to make a move on her or anything, but unwilling to actually express the thought.

He stood too, then, and pulled open Instagram to take a selfie. He had to bend down, just slightly, to make sure both their faces were in frame, but something about the pose wasn’t doing it for him. Maybe it was his experience modeling, but he felt that the two of them just being in the same frame didn’t communicate enough on its own. He contemplated how to fix this, and Marinette saw his mirrored expression on the screen of the phone.

“Is something wrong?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“It’s nothing you’re doing wrong!” he assured her. “The pose just looks unnatural,” he mused aloud. “Maybe because it is.”

With a Chat Noir like burst of inspiration, he sat down suddenly, and pulled Marinette into his lap by her waist. Just as she landed, he nuzzled into her hair and snapped the picture. She leapt up from his lap immediately, face burning red, and he smiled apologetically.

“Wh...buh...n….” she stammered out, not actually forming real words. With how bright she was blushing, it was likely that she was cooking her own brain from the heat of it.

“I’m sorry!” he said, but he couldn’t help but smile at the steam practically rising from her ears. A small part of him wondered if he weren’t already in love with Ladybug, would he be more interested in Marinette? She was adorable, everyone knew that, but seeing her flustered and so close to him was enough to make him want to mess with her forever.

“I..what...You…” she kept going, hands on her cheeks in (almost) wordless shock.

He held out his phone, showing her the picture that he’d managed to snap. Although very slightly blurry, the picture showed a surprised but smiling Marinette sitting on Adrien’s lap, with his face partially obscured by her hair. While Marinette’s big blue eyes were turned toward Adrien, which was something of a shame in his opinion--capturing those baby blues would have been a photographer’s first instinct--but green eyes shone straight at the camera, his lips curled into a catlike smirk.

“It came out really good,” he said lamely. “Can I post it?”

There was a pause where Marinette simply stared at the picture, looking aghast. After a moment, she nodded, still mute with surprise. Adrien smiled encouragingly at her, and gestured for her to take a seat, as they had still not eaten anything.

“I hope...it helps,” she breathed, too awkward to raise her voice above a whisper.

“Hey, don’t look so glum,” he told her. “Order a drink, maybe some coffee? After all, I like the picture a-latte.” He finished with the kind of smile that could only accompany a joke of that caliber. 

She snorted, and he felt the same bubble of pride in his chest as when he’d made her giggle until she snorted in the limousine nearly a week ago. He would win his way to her friendship with bad jokes, or he wasn’t half as funny as he thought he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter feels really short, despite it being about the length of the others, so I'm sorry about that! Fic production might slow down for a few days as I have a few hours scheduled at work over the weekend, but I'm gonna try to keep posting regularly! Next chapter will probably have some more Ladynoir and a lot more Chloe :3


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a late update today ): I hope I'll get back up to speed in no time!

** Me and my new girlfriend, Marinette! Isn’t she the cutest? **

That was the captain on his instagram post. Marinette wasn’t sure which part was more astonishing; that Adrien had called her cute, that the picture had close to a thousand comments, or that he’d actually used correct punctuation and capitalization in a typed sentence. A secondary shock set in when she realized that she’d begun to criticize Adrien at all, even in play, as though he were just anybody else. Or, more specifically, as though he were Chat Noir.

“It’s a really good picture,” Alya said, looking at it on Marinette’s tablet.

The two were sitting in class, having not gotten to see each other properly since Nino’s quiz idea on Sunday. Alya had already seen the picture once, having been told about it over text, but Marinette was so ecstatic about it that she felt the need to show Alya again and again. After all, the only other person she was close enough to to brag was Chat Noir, and she got the feeling he wouldn’t take it well, even if she photoshopped a mask onto her face.

“I only wish the comments were...nicer,” Marinette said, wincing as she glanced through them. Perhaps because of the low profile she generally liked to keep, but this was likely the first time she’d been called a bitch--especially 37 times consecutively.

“Some of them are sweet! Look, this is Rose’s account. She said that she’s glad you found true love,” Alya said, scrolling through them. “Though I have the feeling she might have said that if he’d been posing with a horse or a really good sandwich, too.”

Marinette laughed, punching Alya lightly in the arm. Alya rubbed her arm, looking like Marinette had genuinely hurt her, and Marinette made a mental note to either work out less, or pretend to be weaker. She didn’t have a good explanation for why her biceps were as large as they were, and it would be best if nobody asked her.

Chloe stormed in a split second later, and didn’t even bother going to her seat before coming over to harass Marinette. 

She waved her phone in front of Marinette’s face, Adrien’s instagram page pulled up for her to see. Sure enough, there was the picture Adrien had taken. Somehow, it was even more satisfying to see it in Chloe’s hands.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Chloe demanded.

“Well, I...uh…” Marinette couldn’t think of a comeback quite quick enough, so Nino took over.

“Chloe, I don’t know how you manage to text so much for someone who doesn’t know how to read,” he said, laughing. “The picture’s explained in the caption.”

Chloe didn’t dignify his jape with a response. Her blues eyes were still glued to Marinette’s, demanding an explanation. Marinette smiled, but said nothing, allowing the picture to do all the explaining. Chloe reeled back, looking at her phone with visible disgust, and finally settled on an acceptable insult.

“It’s pretty pathetic, actually,” Chloe said, sneering. “You two doing this elaborate act just for my sake, alienating hundreds of Adrien’s loyal fans…” She leaned closer, whispering now: “Once I find out how you tricked him into this, he’ll never speak to you again.”

With that, she stormed to her seat, and Marinette began to laugh. The idea that she would bribe or blackmail Adrien into dating her was already farfetched, but the truth that he thought he was bribing her was just silly. But, really, on a day to day basis she dressed up in a magic costume and beat up costumed dorks--her  life was silly. It was just new that her lovelife matched up for once.

When Adrien came in, it wasn’t long before Chloe started acting up again.

“Adrikins!” she cooed, stepping over to him. “Did you know that my father is throwing a charity ball in honour of Ladybug saving his life last month? Your father already RSVP’d, and the invitation was only for one, but I’m sure you can afford a ticket.”

“I don’t know, Chloe, those kind of events aren’t usually my thing,” Adrien said hesitantly. 

“You know, if I were your girlfriend, it’s just the sort of thing I’d expect us to attend as a couple,” she said innocently, before her Cheshire Cat grin gave her away. “So it’s only natural that you and Marinette would go if you were a  _ real _ couple and not some sad excuse at a delusion become tangible,” she finished, practically purring in Adrien’s ear.

Adrien shot a panicked look at Marinette, who would only shrug. It was his call whether or not to invite her. Going to a dress ball on Adrien’s arm, to meet his father and the mayor of the city as he spoke Ladybug’s praises was something of a dream come true, of course, but she couldn’t even begin to imagine how embarrassing that would be for Adrien. And his father would be there, no less. If he shot Chloe’s idea down, she would understand completely, and spend all her frustrated energy on designing a gown for a ball that would never happen. She’d probably do something in turquoise.

Chloe looked at Marinette, and mouthed the word “Gotcha.”

“I’d have to ask her, first,” Adrien said at last, before turning toward Marinette and calling out, “Hey Marinette, want to go to the Mayor’s charity ball? It’ll be a fun date!” He finished with a wink, and Marinette may or may not have actually felt her heart stop.

“A-absolutely,” she stammered out, feeling all the blood in her body rush to her cheeks.

She might go through the evening the colour of her superhero mask, but it would be on Adrien’s arm, and Chloe would keep making that face--the one where it looked as though she’d stepped in something rotten.

“Well there you go,” Adrien said. He looked completely...normal. Not as though he were being coerced or like he’d just one-upped Chloe in a game of chess--just like he always did. “I guess we’ll see you there then, Chloe!”

He went to his seat, and Marinette remembered to breathe.

“You guys should take more selfies and put them on Instagram!” Alya said, leaning forward to talk to both of them at once. “That last one was really cute!”

 

* * *

 

Adrien felt that taking a limo to a charity ball might be a bit ostentatious, but he shrugged off the feeling when faced with the reality of his life: he didn’t have a cab driver on call; he had a limo driver. And so, Adrien had the honour of positively embarrassing Marinette before they even got the ball.

He waited outside for her to be ready as he was told to do by her (incredibly tall) father, leaning against the limo and examining his nails. His suit was an old favourite at this point, given how often he’d had to appear at his father’s side at events or catwalks in Paris. It was simple, but elegant in design. Black, good, strong material, with a forest green tie and pocket square. It was more than a little reminiscent of his Chat Noir costume, but he wasn’t concerned about being recognised. It wasn’t like Chat Noir had a copyright on black and green clothing, after all.

He heard the soft tinkle of the bakery door opened, and he looked up with a ready smile for Marinette.

The smile was almost instantly replaced by a look of shock and awe.

Rather than her customary pinks and greys, which he’d half expected her to adhere to, she was clad in a floor length gown of turquoise blue. It had a white neckline and a soft, almost imperceptible leaf pattern throughout that shimmered as Marinette awkwardly shifted from foot to foot on her white pumps. With a smile slowly returning to his face, he noted that she had pink toenails, and she was either blushing for she’d gone to the effort of putting on meticulous make up. Her hair wasn’t in it’s pigtails, either, but in a beautifully braided bun. He felt a bit like he’d been punched in the stomach, and yet his first thought was  _ What if Ladybug wore an outfit like that? _

Even with someone beautiful, compassionate, and brave on his arm, his thoughts strayed to her. He was almost disappointed in himself.

“You look stunning,” Adrien said honestly.

“Stop it,” she said, smiling, blushing bright pink.

“Your carriage awaits, my lady,” he said, bowing to her as he indicated the limo. She giggled and climbed in as he opened the door for her, and he only noticed after the fact that he’d called her a name usually reserved for Ladybug. It didn’t even make sense as a pun for Marinette. He’d have to do better than that.

As they drove to City Hall for the event, they sat in comfortable silence. It had been two weeks between being informed of the event and the limo ride, giving Marinette plenty of time to design and craft the gown she’d put together, and Adrien plenty of time to get to know her, in case quizzed by Chloe or his father. 

His father.

Adrien would be introducing Marinette to his father tonight. 

True, she’d met him (well, if him being carried around on an iPad counted) once before at the design contest, and he’d approved of her pigeon hat, but that wasn’t the same as meeting him as Adrien’s girlfriend. Adrien hadn’t gotten the chance to explain the situation to his father, and he highly doubted that his father would understand, so the ruse would have to be consistent. He glanced at Marinette out of the corner of his eye, wondering if she knew how nervous he was about the idea.

“You know, I kinda thought you’d be wearing pink,” Adrien commented, afraid that if he dwelled too much on his father’s reaction to Marinette, he’d become a sweaty nervous mess.

She looked at her dress with a smile of pride. “I thought about it, but I thought blue might make me look a bit more grown up,” she explained. “Your father sounds like he’d appreciate a mature girl rather than a kid. Why? Do you not like it?”

Adrien shook his head hastily. “I like it a lot! It brings out your eyes!”

It was dark in the back of the limo, but he thought he saw her blush.

“The green makes your eyes stand out too, but usually they do that on their own,” she said quietly.

In the past three weeks of their pseudo-relationship, the two hard grown more comfortable with one another than he ever would have thought possible. They’d had over a dozen actual, real conversations that didn’t end in Marinette blushing so hard she couldn’t speak, and Adrien had found that he actually liked her quite a bit. Even without the facade of their relationship, he would be glad to count her among his friends.

They arrived at City Hall, and Adrien escorted her in without a hitch. The interior was decadent, which seemed moderately out of place for a charity event, but it didn’t surprise him. Mayor Bourgeoisie was extravagant at the worst of times, and had a penchant for turning simple events into wild parties. Chloe had no doubt helped arrange the event, and Adrien felt sorry for whoever they had hired to put the ball together.

The main hall had been decked out in red and gold, with black polka dot accents here and there in celebration of Ladybug. Adrien felt his chest tighten just seeing the Ladybug motif. He had it  _ bad _ for her.

Marinette pulled to a stop, swinging around so that she was standing in front of him, with her eyes wide.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Chloe at 2 o'clock,” she whispered. 

“Wait, your 2 o’clock or mine?” he asked, panicking slightly.

Marinette casually toyed with his pocket square, settling it into place as Chloe came up from behind Marinette, her eyes ablaze with anger. Perhaps she hadn’t truly believed that they would go to the ball together, preferring to assume that Adrien wasn’t willing to pay for Marinette’s ticket all for the sake of a ruse. True, it had been more money than he had expected, but Chloe would never estimate exactly how committed he was to this fake relationship.

Except when it came to flirting with Ladybug, of course.

Though, he reflected, even that had been coming up less and less often. Maybe he’d even convinced himself that this relationship was real.

“I see you two made it,” Chloe said, her voice like acid.

Adrien smiled at her as though she were a camera. It looked natural, but it wasn’t. “Did you think we wouldn’t?”

Chloe huffed and walked away, leaving them alone. As soon as she was out of their line of sight, Marinette backed away respectfully and stopped touching Adrien. She was still uncomfortable with him, although she might be able to hold a conversation, but he understood. Both of them were interested in someone else who would not or could not return their affections.

Adrien thought about asking her to dance, but thought better of it. It wasn’t fair to spend the whole night pretending to feel things he didn’t, picturing Ladybug the whole time. Instead, he extended his arm to her, and she took it. They walked around the party, arm in arm, nodding politely and trying not to step on anyone’s toes. Besides Chloe, they were likely the youngest people among the affluent of Paris, and as such felt monstrously out of place.

After an hour or so of this, they both agreed to hit the punch table and hope for anything good to eat.

“What kind of goodies do they usually have at these things?” Marinette asked. Her eyes had been wide all evening, trying to take in the height of fashions and exactly what huge amounts of money looked like.

“Expensive cheeses, I guess,” Adrien said, wrinkling his nose. “I don’t do these events too often.”

“Not a fan of cheese?” she asked, laughing.

“I’ve been exposed to cheese’s darker side more times than I’d like. Just the word ‘Camembert’ sends unpleasant chills up my spine.” He shook his head thoroughly, sending some of his neatly kept hair into his face.

Marinette brushed it out of his eyes for him, and stepped toward the punch bowl, somehow without turning red or rigid.

“You wouldn’t want to look sloppy,” she said, smiling over her shoulder.

Adrien swallowed, hard. For a moment, he wasn’t thinking about Ladybug.

He chased after her, beating her to the punch bowl so that he could pour their drinks. He tried to ignore the lump in his throat as he smiled at Marinette. From over his shoulder, he heard some kind of argument, and his ears pricked up. His hearing wasn’t as good out of costume as it was when Plagg aided his senses, but he was capable enough of hearing that someone was very upset.

“I’m sorry sir, I--” It was a woman’s voice, and she sounded on the edge of tears.

“I’ve had three noise complaints, and you come in here looking like a beleaguered mother of three who hasn’t slept in a week? Your glasses are smudged--you probably can’t even see yourself. You look like garbage, and I can’t have you in here ruining the decor.” Adrien wasn’t sure without looking, but it sounded like the Mayor.

Marinette’s eyes narrowed as she looked over his shoulder, and an expression of disgust he’d only seen when she looked at Chloe being particularly cruel showed on her face. She was gripping her glass too tightly.

“Sir I chased out the gatecrashers and I just--”

“Go clean yourself up, woman. I can’t have you looking like this.” the Mayor snapped, and pushed past Adrien on his way back into the ballroom.

“It runs in the family, I guess,” Adrien said, sighing.

Marinette didn’t reply, just shaking her head. She looked down at the punch in her hand thoughtfully, and he expected her to articulate a thought when she looked back at him, but her blue eyes grew wide as saucers, and she pushed him to the side. Punch sloshed out of his cup and onto both of their outfits, but when he turned and saw what she saw, a dry cleaning bill was the last thing on his mind.

Towering over the crowd was a woman in a golden dress which seemed to move like liquid gold as the light struck it. She was facing away from them, but her hair seemed to be made up almost entirely of blonde snakes. She turned her head sharply, and the unfortunate man she happened to look at froze in place in shock. Adrien looked closer--that wasn’t shock. He was turning into a gold statue.

“You wanted killer good looks, Mister Mayor?” the woman said softly, almost cooing. She had the same voice of the woman the Mayor had been yelling at not two moments ago. “I’m not your event planner anymore, Bourgeoisie. I’m Midusa now, and I’ll give you looks that can kill!”

“Sorry to run out on our second date,” Marinette murmured in his ear. “But we need to get you to safety.”

Adrien nodded, grabbed her hand, and ran.

They made it all the way upstairs, near the Mayor’s office, before she started pulling away. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You need to stay up here where it’s safe!”

“I need to evacuate people!” she insisted. “They’re turning to statues down there!”

He nodded, and ran in the opposite direction, gesturing that she go back down the stairs. He knew that Adrien wouldn’t be much help in an emergency situation. Chat Noir, on the other hand…

 

* * *

 

Ladybug sprinted toward Midusa, grabbing a silver platter of fine cheeses and tossing away all the cheese in a single motion. She didn’t know much about people turning others into gold with a look, but she hoped that a reflective surface would work as well against Midusa as it was supposed to against Medusa. Before she could get close enough to attract the giantess’s attention, she saw a familiar looking silver staff fly through the air and smack Midusa right in the side of the head.

“Hey! Pick on someone a little more handsome, won’t you?” Chat Noir called from atop the stairs. 

Ladybug couldn’t help but smile. Bravado he might have, but a plan he certainly did not. She picked up another cheese platter and frisbee’d it at his head. Fortunately (especially given his luck), he managed to catch it, and looked her way with a cocky grin.

“Kitty! I didn’t expect you so soon!” she called.

Chat Noir wielded the platter like a shield as he slid down the bannister to land at her side. “You know me,” he said, grinning wide. “I love a party. You should see me in a suit sometime.”

She laughed as she crouched and tried to fit her entire body behind the platter. She started creeping forward, toward Midusa, but was afraid to look and see how far away she was. Instead, she looked over at Chat. Yeah, she could believe he looked good in a suit. Maybe even as good as Adrien.

“You know, I’m almost glad this akuma showed up,” she confided. He was at her side, occasionally grabbing glasses or ornaments that had fallen in the chaos of an akuma appearing and chucking it over his shield at Midusa. “I was having a really awkward date.”

He looked at her, his expression more thoughtful than cocky. “Things with your boyfriend not going well?”

She took her yo-yo and hurled it at another platter which was lying on its side. With the yo-yo, she turned it just so that she could see the giant akuma victim, stalking toward them, gazing about lethally for the Mayor.

“Things are okay, I guess,” she admitted. “What about your girlfriend? Has she seen you in a suit yet?”

His grin was back in full force, and she was glad. She’d never admit how much she was reassured by seeing his smile in the midst of chaos.

“Maybe,” he replied, sticking his tongue out at her playfully. “But I bet she could see me in a catsuit instead. Have you figured out the akuma?”

Ladybug studied the reflection of Midusa, and noted that where there had been typical square tortoiseshell glasses, there was now a gold and pearl cat eye frames sporting a darker, more sinister hue than the rest of the giantess’s golden body. She didn’t notice any other odd looking jewelry or accessories, so she made a guess.

“Her glasses, maybe?” she offered with a shrug.

“That’s quite a ‘maybe,’” was Chat’s reply. He studied the reflection as well before eventually offering up a shrug of defeat. “I’ll keep her distracted, and maybe try to get those things from her face, but I don’t know how you can get up to her face without making eye contact, and I don’t want to live in a world without Ladybug.”

Ladybug smiled softly, and looked at him perhaps closer than she had in awhile. She nodded at him, then, and steeled herself for the coming combat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I know that this looks like a major cliffhanger...but it isn't. I just wasn't feeling up to writing a whole fighting scene when the end is inevitably a broken pair of glasses and a fistbump. Next chapter will start out shortly after the akuma is defeated, but this chapter was getting way long and I wanted to wrap things up and move on.
> 
> Once again, thank you so much for the comments and encouragement! These things are what's keeping me writing this, even when I'm feeling lazy! I promise I don't think any of them are annoying, and just because I don't reply doesn't mean I'm not reading them. Sometimes to cheer myself up I literally just look through all the comments you guys have left and they mean so much to me!


	7. Chapter 7

**[Text From: Marinette Dupain-Cheng @ 11:03 PM]  
Hope you’re all right! Sorry I didn’t get to meet your father after all. **

Chat Noir didn’t get text messages from his normal phone on his super hero communicator, so Chat Noir didn’t get that text until much later in the evening. At the time that text was sent, he was traipsing about the rooftops of Paris, trying to clear his head.

He had just finished fighting with Ladybug only an hour or so ago--their Miraculous had beeped, they’d gone separate ways, and the day was saved. True, the Mayor’s party had been ruined, but otherwise everything was back to normal. Exactly the way things were before an akuma had attacked.

Except Chat Noir’s mind was full of blue eyes and fingers brushing his hair out of his face. Except Chat Noir had been almost unaware of Ladybug smiling at him and touching his arm right before they had separated. Except Chat Noir was on the roof of the building next to Marinette’s bakery.

He wasn’t sure what he was doing there, entirely. What could he say to her as Chat that he couldn’t as Adrien? Marinette knew Adrien, trusted him, was comfortable enough with him to tidy his hair--and yet Adrien needed the mask to feel himself around her. She’d liked him as Chat once, been willing to work with him without freezing or laughing nervously. Whatever problems she had with Adrien didn’t exist when he wore a mask.

She was up on her roof, leaning against the small fence and clutching a mug of something steaming. She didn’t know he was there, and so he contented himself with watching. Marinette pulled out her phone, the glow of its screen illuminating her face, and checked her messages--probably waiting for Adrien to text her back and confirm that he hadn’t been injured by Midusa. She sighed heavily, and Chat sighed with her.

Marinette froze, and turned her head to look in his direction. Chat Noir was hidden in the shadow of a chimney, so he knew she couldn’t see him, but somehow she’d sensed his movement all the same. She kept squinting in his general direction, and he could feel his heart rate going up under her stare.

“What am I, a peeping tom?” he asked himself quietly with a laugh. “I’ll just go say hi.”

He scampered from his hiding spot into the light of the moon and leapt over to Marinette’s position on her roof. Despite having apparently appeared out of nowhere, she seemed unsurprised to see him. Marinette was full of surprises, wasn’t she?

“Chat Noir,” she greeted him, taking a sip of her drink. “I thought I heard an alley cat creeping about.”

“Alley cat? You have me all wrong Pri--” he stopped short, his tongue gluing itself to the roof of his mouth as he realized that _Adrien_ called Marinette ‘Princess’ these days and to borrow the pet name now would be more than a little suspicious. He recovered quickly, pressing on with “Pretty girl! I’m a house cat, you see. Perfectly harmless to anyone who’ll give me a bowl of milk and a scratch behind the ears.”

Marinette laughed, and pushed his shoulder to prevent him from getting too close, but it was a playful thing. “You’re really committed to the whole cat thing, huh?” she asked, smiling softly at him. “I almost wonder whose idea the bell was.”

Chat Noir grinned, leaning close in the hopes that she might not push him away again, and said, “Ladybug’s, of course. She wanted to know where I was at all times.”

She snorted again, and turned to face Paris. She took a sip of her drink and looked at him from the corner of her eyes, watching him like a hawk. He turned toward Paris as well, leaning against the fence so close to her that he could almost touch her--but he didn’t. Instead, he watched the lights twinkle in the middle of the night, their glow reflecting off of some low hanging clouds in the night sky. There weren’t stars in Paris, but the city was always alight, and in that he took solace.

“Why are you here?” Marinette asked after a period of silence.

“I’ve been thinking about you,” Chat Noir said with a sigh, before he’d realized he’d said anything. He’d become so at ease in the moment that words simply escaped him with little thought, and no explanation. He stammered for a moment, not really making any real words, before he managed to explain, “Since that night with the Evillustrator,” he said. “You were quick, and clever, and incredibly brave for a civilian.”

Marinette stared at him, her face almost expressionless which was unusual. Adrien was accustomed to her making a thousand expressions in a moment, going from panic to glee in a second without so much as a pause. But now? Neutrality. Perhaps it was thoughtfulness, but in the dark he couldn’t be sure.

“I thought you were in love with Ladybug,” she said quietly. He could barely make out her voice over the hammering in his chest.

He paused, unsure of what to say. Part of him wanted to say _Yes of course I’m in love with Ladybug she’s the light of my life and she’ll never know how much I truly care about her_ _._ But part of him insisted _Ladybug doesn’t know me. You, Marinette, see me at my least impressive and your eyes and laugh have stolen my breath away without so much as a villain defeated._

So he didn’t say anything. He averted his eyes, battling emotions filling his heart. Marinette was just as inaccessible to him as Ladybug, after all. Even as she’d gotten comfortable enough with him to carry real conversations, she’d passed right into becoming his true friend. She would never look at him romantically, no matter how much he held her hand and cuddled close as Chloe looked on. Perhaps asking her to be his fake girlfriend had been the worst idea possible--now he was in love with a girl who was only nice to him as a facade that he had asked for.

“You’ve moved on, haven’t you?” Marinette said, taking it upon herself to fill the silence he’d created by not having words.

Chat pulled himself out of his momentary reticence and pushed away from the railing to turn and face Marinette with a broad (fake) grin.

“Are you jealous of my relationship with Ladybug, Marinette?” he asked, winking.

“Pfft,” was all that she managed at first, rolling her eyes and punching his shoulder. He smiled, so glad to have her pleased with him even as she was annoyed, but her smile faded to a curious quirk of her lips too soon for him to be satisfied. “But you do have a girlfriend, don’t you? Why aren’t you with her?”

Chat Noir stopped in his mental tracks, his mouth hanging open. There was nothing he could say that could benefit this situation, and his mind was too full of questions to even articulate an answer, clever or not. He didn’t have a real girlfriend, to start with, only a faux. Secondly, he _was_ with her. Thirdly--

“How did you know that?” he asked before he could stop himself. It sounded like an admission of guilt.

Marinette looked away, frowning. His heart plummeted, deciding to settle somewhere around his stomach, and he felt like he’d never be happy again. Perhaps it was his ego talking, but for a moment it had seemed like Marinette was interested in him. Well, not him. It had seemed as though Marinette was interested in Chat Noir, more than she’d ever been comfortable or interested in Adrien. And the fact that he’d just pushed her away, made her feel as though she could not be close him, was like stabbing himself in the chest.

“It’s more complicated than you think, Princess,” he sighed, putting his head in his hands.

“You shouldn’t call me that,” she told him, going to take another sip of her drink. “My boyfriend calls me that. You’re not the only one who has other people, Chat Noir.”

 

* * *

 

Marinette laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling. It was 4 AM. Adrien hadn’t texted back, and she barely cared. She would not be sleeping tonight. Her mind was full of glowing green eyes and a face too close to hers, stretched in a charming grin meant to put her at ease. She wanted to close these thoughts away in a box and unfold memories of Adrien holding her hand, winking at her, looking at her long after he thought she’d been distracted by something else--but Chat’s face was there, and he was looking at her lips, and she wondered what it would be like to kiss--

She sat up suddenly, startling Tikki awake, and put her head in her hands.

“How can I be falling for Chat now, of all times?” she moaned into her palms in shame. “Just when Adrien is starting to actually notice me…”

“Do you still like Adrien?” Tikki asked, hopping onto Marinette’s shoulders and into her hands once Marinette’s face was out of them.

“Of course!” Marinette snapped. “Or…” she paused, and averted her eyes. “I think I do? He’s pretty cool and I really like being his friend but…”

“But you like Chat Noir more?” Tikki proposed helpfully. “Don’t you think it might be because he’s inaccessible now that he has someone other than Ladybug in his life? You liked Adrien until you got to know him, and now you want Chat. I think you’re chasing after the idea of a relationship but you’re scared of what will happen if you commit to one or the other!”

Marinette stared at the kwami in her hands, unsure of what to say for a long time. Tikki looked up at her sympathetically, not a bone of ill intent in her tiny, possibly boneless body.

“How do you know me so well, Tikki? Better than myself, it seems,” Marinette said at last, smiling.

“I’m an ancient all knowing god, Marinette!” Tikki replied, giggling. Marinette’s eyes widened. “Oh, just joking! I’m not all knowing, I just care about you deeply as a friend!”

After a heartbeat’s worth of silence, Marinette hugged Tikki tightly to her. “I care about you too, Tikki!” she exclaimed. “I’m going to try to take your advice. I’ll commit to liking Adrien and keep that black cat as a friend!”

Marinette was able to get some sleep that night after all, content with the decision she had made. She had four hours of sleep before she had to rush to school and come face to face with the Queen Bee Chloe herself, manicured nails tapping irritably.

Chloe was standing near her seat in the classroom, arms crossed, fidgeting uncomfortably as she stared at the side of Adrien’s head. He wasn’t looking at her, but was instead yawning as he checked his text messages. Marinette figured that he’d gotten an earful from his father about coming home from the Mayor’s party so late, so he couldn’t have slept terribly longer than she had. She had no immediately explanation for Chloe’s wrath, however.

“I see you weaseled out of meeting his father,” Chloe said casually as Marinette dragged her feet on the way to her seat.

“Yes, being attacked by a giant golden medusa was exactly my plan,” Marinette snapped in reply. The lack of sleep had made her a touch grouchy, and Chloe was almost too easy of a target. “I counted on your father abusing one of his workers so badly that she’d hulk out and I wouldn’t have to talk to Papa Agreste at all!”

Chloe’s eyes narrowed, and her lips curled into something resembling a sneer. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re the one who talked your stupid friends into gatecrashing, which is the real cause of all of this.”

Marinette opened her mouth to say something probably not very witty, but incredibly rude, but Adrien’s voice came from behind her, silencing her better than Chloe ever could.

“Hey, lay off my girlfriend for fifteen seconds, would you Chloe?” he said, sighing heavily as he turned to look at the bickering girls. “It’s not her fault that your dad’s party sucked.”

Chloe opened and closed her mouth before getting to her seat in silence, and Marinette had never been so pleased to have a friend come to her defense before. She smiled at Adrien as she sat down behind him and he turned and gave her a tired grin.

Marinette managed to nap fitfully through class, and her teachers were understanding given that they’d seen the news coverage of Mayor Bourgeoisie's event and had known that she attended. It was a generally understood rule at the school that if a student was in any way involved with an akuma attack, they were given some leniency the next day. Unfortunately, this rule did not extend to Ladybug’s secret identity, so Marinette very rarely was able to take advantage of this policy.

She dreamed of green eyes, and fooled herself into thinking that they were Adrien’s.

At lunch, Chloe immediately got to her feet and stood in front of Adrien, having moved on apparently from attacking Marinette.

“I know you’ve fooled everyone else into thinking that there’s some reason you’d ever be attracted to her,” she began. Adrien looked tired of hearing whatever this was about to be before it began, and that was just from the looks of the back of his head. “But holding hands and standing in general proximity of each other isn’t dating. I’d do that with Sabrina if her hands weren’t always so sweaty.”

“What do you want from me, Chloe?” Adrien asked. Something in his voice was off, Marinette thought. Yes, he sounded tired, but there was something else to it. Annoyed at Chloe, certainly, but he sounded almost...sad? What reason did Adrien have to be sad? He lead a gifted life of fame and luxury, didn’t he?

“You’ve never once kissed Marinette, and you’ve been quote unquote ‘together’ for almost a month now. My father didn’t raise any idiots,” she announced proudly.

Unfortunately, Chloe had the kind of voice that carried, and although the teacher had left for lunch, many of the other students were still packing their things up. Marinette surreptitiously checked who was looking at them, and she saw too many people watching for it to be comfortable. Rose’s face was positively glowing at the prospect of seeing someone kiss. Nathanael looked alarmed and a bit like he might cry or immediately start drawing the situation. Mylene was getting Ivan’s attention to make sure that he was looking as well. And of course, Alya had started grinning on Marinette’s behalf.

Silently, Adrien stood up from his seat, and paced over to Marinette’s. Her eyes were wide, and she was frozen in place. He took her hands, pulled her to her feet, and made eye contact. Time seemed to slow for a moment as she looked into his green eyes, and butterflies (or perhaps ladybugs) whirled through her stomach. He mouthed the words ‘ _I’m sorry_ ’ and he pulled her in for a kiss.

Their lips met, and Adrien moved his hand to her back, pulling her toward him. Impulsively, she reached for him and her fingers ended up at the back of his neck, brushing against his hair. The kiss could not have lasted more than fifteen seconds, but as he drew away, she already began to miss him being quite so close to her. He disengaged with a somewhat breathless smile, and then turned to Chloe with a glare.

“Stop trying to police my relationship,” he said sternly, and gave Marinette a squeeze on her shoulder before he returned to his bag and left the room.

“If I didn’t know any better,” Alya said, smiling wide. “I’d say you think they’re cute together, Chloe. After all, it’s all your pushing that’s forced them into more and more romantic situations.”

“Don’t even speak to me,” was Chloe’s only retort.

Marinette felt wobbly kneed, and sat down quite suddenly. The kiss hadn’t been her first, but it had been markedly similar to her first. Neither of them had actually _wanted_ the kiss on either occasion. At least this time she’d been upright, and he’d been in his right mind. Her heart fluttered in her chest as an unprompted image of kissing a fully cognizant Chat Noir appeared in her mind’s eye.

With shaky hands, she brought out her phone to text Adrien. She would take Tikki’s advice even if it killed her. Adrien was within reach, quite literally most of the time, and Chat Noir was...another matter entirely. She would not think of another boy while kissing her (faux) boyfriend.

Before she got the opportunity to send a message, her phone vibrated in her hands.

**[Text From: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 12:16 PM]  
Do you want to meet my father for real? think of it as a sorry for kissing u without permission **

**[Text To: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 12:17 PM]  
You don’t need to apologize, Adrien! It was Chloe’s fault anyway. **

She fired off the text, hoping that she wasn’t coming on too strong or scaring him away. This was probably the fastest she’d ever replied to one of his text messages.

**[Text From: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 12:18 PM]  
But do u want to come over today after school? i’d like to see you w/o chloe there lmao **

Marinette knew that a month ago, her heart would have seized up and she likely would have died on the spot from receiving a text like that from Adrien. Without thinking, she smiled softly, glad that they were close enough that they could talk like this. She was no longer quite so desperate for his affection, it seemed.

**[Text To: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 12:20 PM]  
Sure. **

 

* * *

 

Adrien sprinted up to his room as soon as he’d arrived at home. Marinette had said she needed to check in at home before she came over, which gave him the perfect opportunity to hide anything messy or unsavory in his room from her view. He knew that her room was a pink example of cleanliness, and he knew that his room was huge, bare, and usually had at least 2 pairs of dirty underpants on the floor.

Not to mention the smell of cheese emanating from under his bed.

He cleaned hastily, every now and then stopping in his tracks as his mind inevitably wandered back to Marinette. Or, more specifically, Marinette’s lips. Marinette’s small noise of surprise as he drew her in. Marinette’s hands at the nape of his neck. Marinette seeming reluctant to pull away.

Adrien shook his head, and tossed more clothes into a laundry basket. Despite whatever delusions he had about her potentially liking him the same way he liked her, he knew she was interested in someone else. She’d practically admitted as much to him on their second date. Even though she’d pulled the ‘I have a boyfriend’ card to get out of talking to Chat Noir, Adrien knew their relationship was a fake.

Still, he couldn’t get the thought out of his head that maybe some part of her might have enjoyed the kiss.

The doorbell rang, and he sprinted down the stairs, calling to Nathalie to let her in. Marinette stood, mildly awe struck in the foyer of his home as he rushed down the stairs. In the soft, white sunlight coming through the tall windows, she appeared to be glowing. True to form, Adrien missed a step in his haphazard jog down the stairs, and managed to land on his bottom, thudding to the bottom of the stairs until he rolled onto his face.

Marinette’s laugh was enough reward, despite the literal pain in his ass that had caused it.

“I’d think a model would have more grace,” she said, helping him up. He grinned up at her, remembering similar words from a girl in red and black spots. _I’d think a cat would be more graceful_ , she’d said to him once.

It was no wonder he’d fallen for Marinette (literally, in this case) given how similar she was to his lady love.  
“I’m not your typical model, Princess,” he replied lamely. “My dad should be home from work in an hour or so. Would you like to see my room?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! Don't worry, I've got an ending planned for this fic (rare, for me) so I'm gonna follow this through to the end :3


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to Mirthalia for beta-ing this (you'll note the drastic increase in quality)!

“You have a rock climbing wall,” Marinette said, her eyes wide and her expression almost appalled. It was a typical reaction when kids his age saw his room, Adrien supposed. Actually, Nino had made the same face, and he and Marinette were the only two people ever to have been in his room who were not paid to be there, so statistically it was a 100% common response.  
  
“Yeah, it helps build up arms like these,” he said, pushing up his sleeve to flex at her.   
  
She giggled, and swatted his arm away. “Don’t get such a big head, handsome boy, or you’ll be just as bad as that Chat Noir,” she admonished him, smiling wide.  
  
He wanted to say that if she kept calling him handsome, there was no hope for the size of his ego. He wanted to pull her toward him into a tight hug, because he was so glad to have her smile adding warmth to his cold, white room. He wanted to know that she wasn’t pretending to flirt with him, but that she meant it.  
  
Instead, he winked at her, and told her to make herself at home.  
  
Marinette responded to this by immediately settling into in his desk chair, raising an eyebrow at the three large monitors before spinning the chair to face him. She pulled her legs up into the chair and sat criss-cross applesauce, looking at him as though she were waiting for him to do something. It was a curious mirror to when he’d sat at her computer desk weeks earlier, trying to figure out her favourite animal.  
  
“Say, why don’t you like cats?” he asked, sitting on his bed.  
  
She blinked at him, obviously not having expected that question. “They’re morons,” she said, laughing. “Why should I like them?”  
  
“Well, you like Chat Noir, don’t you? He’s pretty much the most famous cat there is,” he replied, desperately hoping that whatever face he was making wouldn’t give away his identity.  
  
She shook her head. “He’s the worst one!” she declared, before pausing and evidently thinking the statement through a bit more. Which made sense since, as far as she knew, Adrien wouldn't have any reason to think that she had enough experience to form a real opinion on Chat. Adrien’s mouth quirked its way into a smile as she went on, “I only met him for a few moments but he was the biggest...goof!”  
  
Adrien found it interesting that she would try to conceal the fact that Chat Noir had visited her just last night. While he knew that he was no Ladybug, there were people who loved to get updates on Chat Noir’s activities in the city, and there was nothing to be lost from bragging that a celebrity super hero had paid her extra attention. That is, unless she worried what Adrien would think. Either she didn’t want Adrien to know she was sharing clandestine visits with Chat in order to protect Adrien’s feelings, or she was embarrassed that Chat had decided to stop by.  
  
Option one meant that she might have feelings for either Chat or Adrien (both were fine in his book). Option two meant...well, he wasn’t sure what it meant.  
  
“I kinda thought you liked goofs,” Adrien replied, a cat-like grin on his face. “You do hang out with me and Alya often enough. Not to mention the biggest goof in this room happens to have her hair in pigtails…”  
  
“Are you implying that I’m a goof?” she asked, crossing her arms. Despite her fake pout, a smile broke through.  
  
“Are you implying that you aren’t?” he shot back, leaning forward in his seat.  
  
“I don’t think you can really judge my goofiness,” she decided, turning her nose up after him. “After all, I’ve sat through a month of your atrocious puns and--”  
  
“And laughed at almost every single one,” Adrien finished for her.  
  
“Oh yeah? Well you kissed this goof,” she said, grinning. His heart did a flip and his breath caught in his throat and he was not quite sure if that was a result of her smile or the fact that, yes, he’d kissed that goof.   
  
He leaned back now, just looking at her with a shy smile. “That was my first kiss,” he admitted. Barring, of course, kisses he didn’t remember. _Thanks, akuma_ , he thought sarcastically.  
  
Her face turned bright pink in a way that hadn't happened for quite some time in their conversations. It was the kind of blush he’d gotten used to whenever he provoked her or said something even mildly flirty to or around her--the kind of blush he’d honestly missed since they’d become closer friends.   
  
“I’ve kissed...one other person,” she admitted, the pink refusing to leave her face. She was the same colour as her pants and avoiding eye contact.  
  
His mouth went dry as he tried to imagine who she could have possibly kissed before. Jealousy wasn’t really his M.O but he felt the itch of it in his throat. He thought about lying, telling her about the kiss with Ladybug as though it counted, but the words died in his throat. Instead, he smiled.  
  
“A month ago I would have been in awe that you could have had your first kiss before me,” he admitted. “But honestly, at this point I’m surprised you weren’t dating someone already when I asked you to play along with me. Was it with that other guy you like?”  
  
His question was quiet, respectful, as though it were a normal question between friends. It was a Chat Noir style question, needling and insistent, in Adrien’s voice.  
  
In the stark white of his room, the pink of her blush seemed to add colour to the entire wall behind her.  
  
“How did you know I liked someone?” she blurted out, as shocked as he was that he’d asked it.  
  
He shrugged, laughing as though this wasn’t heartbreak for him. “When this first started you talked about having an unrequited crush on someone,” he explained. “I’d ask you to spill all the details, but I’m probably not as good to talk to about it as Alya.”  
  
A hundred questions burned through his brain: _Do I know him? Is he taller than me? Does he know you like him? Is he a superhero? Can he do a backflip?_  
  
“What about you?” she asked suddenly. “Do you like anyone?”  
  
Her blue eyes burned like fire as she stared at him, so earnest and sincere. He couldn’t believe that he’d ever actually thought that Marinette might have a crush on him. Ridiculous, really--she’d given no sign of it whatsoever.  
  
His smile remained unchanged, and he was glad that he had practise looking sincere. Standing up, he stepped over to her, noting the way she stiffened as though she thought he might touch her. Silly, really, that she'd worry about that. There was no one there to see them, after all. Instead, he moved past her and jiggled the mouse to his computer. The monitors lit up, showing his desktop background three times over.  
  
It was a picture taken from Alya’s blog, of Ladybug leaping from one building to another. It was remarkably clear; you could see Ladybug’s small smile of determination as she swung above Paris. Chat Noir wasn’t in the picture--just his Lady.  
  
Adrien stepped away again and bowed slightly. Marinette’s mouth was open as she looked back and forth between the pictures of the city’s heroine and Adrien, and she started to laugh.  
  
“You have a crush on Ladybug?” she asked, giggling what seemed like a disproportionate amount for whatever joke she saw in the situation. “You, Adrien Agreste... have a crush on Ladybug?”  
  
“I know,” he replied, laughing. “She’s a bit out of my league, don’t you think?”  
  
Marinette wheezed, clutching her sides, and nearly wobbled right out of the chair. “You like Ladybug,” she repeated.  
  
“I do!” he said, smiling despite himself. Even as his heart was breaking, her smile lit up everything around her, and this was a hundred times better. Though, he still didn’t get the joke. “What’s so funny?”  
  
“I just…” She took a deep breath and wiped a tear from her eye. “I wish I’d known this a month ago! A week ago! She’s always saving your life and you’ve just been sitting here with this—” She gestured toward the computer screen. “Now it’s just too funny.”  
  
“What, you think I wouldn’t have a chance with her?” he asked. “I’ve been told I look a lot like Chat Noir, you know, and they’re quite close.”  
  
She sputtered out with more laughter, unable to contain it. “White people all look the same, Adrien. You can’t think she’d like you just because you look like that silly cat!”  
  
“White people don’t all look the same!” he protested, starting to laugh along with her. It was pretty ridiculous.  
  
“Honest to god, I thought you and Chloe were brother and sister on the first day of school,” she told him, cackling.  
  
Before Adrien could express his disgust at being related to Chloe, a polite knock announced Nathalie's arrival. She quickly appraised the situation with a neutral expression, noting in the red-in-the-face teenage girl sitting by the computer and Adrien standing nearby, and gave one slow blink.  
  
“Your father had to jet to Milan. He won’t be home until tomorrow evening,” she said, and quietly ducked out of the room.  
  
Adrien’s face dropped before he could recover and shrug as though it weren’t a big deal. He had desperately wanted to introduce Marinette to his father, for no comprehensible reason. His father hadn’t approved of Nino, his best friend, so why would he approve of Marinette? Perhaps it was because his father had already approved of her designs, so he trusted the brain in her head. His father might be dense, but he had to recognise how fundamentally good Marinette was. Everyone else had--even Nath, who never even talked to her.  
  
Unfortunately, Marinette had seen his face, and she was too kind to ignore it.  
  
“Should I leave?” she asked quietly, having sobered significantly since Nathalie had come in. “I’m sure you have as much homework to do as I do.”  
  
“Y-yeah,” he managed, recognising her attempt to escape the awkward situation and respecting it. “Just don’t be a stranger, alright? Text me when you get home.”

 

* * *

 

Here she was, perched on a rooftop next to Adrien’s house, behaving like a voyeur in a way that was far too reminiscent of her partner's recent antics around Marinette.  
  
She’d suited up with the full intention of swooping in and surprising Adrien, to cheer him up after his father had abandoned him at the last second, to see him swoon and fawn over her as she’d been doing over him for months. And yet, she hesitated.  
  
Was this irresponsible of her? How could she know that he wouldn’t connect the dots and realize that Ladybug had come to visit immediately after Marinette had discovered his infatuation? Adrien’s sense of humour made her doubt it sometimes, but he wasn’t an idiot. He’d see through in her a second.  
  
But the thought of his face before she’d left--eyes downcast, mouth pulled into a small but meaningful frown--and she couldn’t abandon him to that. She almost hoped Gabriel Agreste became an akuma victim so that she’d have a valid reason to punch him in the face someday.  
  
Ladybug swooped into his window, which had been left open. She’d planned on knocking on his window like some kind of stray until he’d opened it for her, but here it was, open for wind and trash to blow in. His room was illuminated, but empty.  
  
“Where are you?” she murmured to herself, putting her hands on her hips as she thought.  
  
Music was playing, as though he’d just stepped out of the room for a moment and was planning to return any moment. She often set music to play in her room when she disappeared as Ladybug, hoping her parents would believe that she was occupied in her room rather than cavorting about Paris, so it occurred to her that perhaps Adrien had snuck out.  
  
She wouldn’t blame him, after all. Perhaps he’d gone to see Nino or — and the thought brought a jolt of concern — Marinette, since his father wouldn’t be home. With some reluctance, she crawled out of his window, and began her trek across Paris back to her bakery.  
  
Ladybug was approximately halfway to her home when she saw a familiar looking shadow scampering from rooftop to rooftop ahead of her. She paused, perched on a window sill, and saw the black figure stall as its flashing green eyes caught sight of her. She grinned, and swung over to him in a heartbeat, her stomach aswirl with butterflies at seeing Chat without an emergency immediately before them.  
  
But as she settled close to him and opened her mouth to speak, she realized that he had no reason to be suited up. There wasn’t an akuma. No danger to be found at all. She narrowed her eyes at him and felt her smile fade from her face. He looked guilty.  
  
“Why are you suited up, Chat Noir?” she asked, crossing her arms.  
  
“Oh, uh, well, you see,” he began, scratching the back of his head and looking around for an excuse to latch on to. “I was thinking that nightly patrols should be a thing, so I figured I’d start out on my own to see how, er, effective they are before I invited you!”  
  
She blinked at him. “And how effective was it?” she asked, in a voice as plain as a sugar-free oatmeal cookie. She wanted to see how far he’d go.  
  
“Pretty good!” he said. “I mean I didn’t catch any villains, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to without you anyway since I can’t purify akumas, but I feel like it’s a good--” he stammered on before she cut him off.  
  
“You were suiting up to impress your girlfriend,” she interrupted. Her voice was low and full of blame. He flinched under the force of the simple sentence.  
  
“I...yes,” he admitted. “But she wasn’t home.”  
  
She could picture it: Chat Noir swooping in on some unwitting civilian, flexing and posing as she laughed at his antics. She could picture him leaning in for a kiss, with some beautiful girl (she was blonde, like Chloe, but with more tasteful make up in Ladybug’s imagination) returning it in delight.   
  
“How can you be so irresponsible?” she snapped, unable to contain the bubble of jealousy that was expanding painfully in her chest. “Does she know about your identity? If she finds out, then she could find out about me, and akuma will start directly attacking us when we’re out of costume! What if our families got hurt? You’re endangering more than just yourself by traipsing around in costume for a pretty face!”  
  
She clapped her hands over her mouth as soon as she’d finished her tirade. His shoulders hunched forward and he avoided her eyes; he was visibly hurt by what she’d said, and she hadn’t even meant it.  
  
“I’m sorry, Ladybug,” he said quietly.  
  
“I...I didn’t mean it!” she stammered out, suddenly so much more like Marinette than Ladybug.   
  
“You did,” he replied, a sad smile growing on his face. Even with his incredible knack for smiling through the worst, his smile was unconvincing. Maybe she just knew him too well. “And you’re right. I won’t do it again.”  
  
He was gone before she could think of something, anything to say to make him feel better. She sat down right where she was and put her head into her hands, so full of shame she couldn’t form words. The one person in her life she knew she’d be able to depend on, the one person who shared her secret and her passion of saving the city, and she’d alienated him. She’d pushed him away with jealousy and bitterness.  
  
Slowly, she got herself home, and detransformed in the safety of her room. Tikki didn't say anything to her, and for that, at least, she was grateful. The red kwami drifted off to her own corner of the room without so much as a look.

With a wince of guilty, she checked her phone. She’d told Adrien she would text him when she’d gotten home, but that was almost two hours ago. Even if she’d driven off the one boy in her life she’d always been able to count on, she wanted to try to maintain her friendship with Adrien if it was the last thing she did.  
  
 **[Text From: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 6:11 PM]**  
 **Hope u got home ok sorry my dad bailed**  
 **[Text From: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 7:32 PM]**  
 **How can you say that cats are dumb when they do this**  
 **[IMAGE]**  
 **[Text From: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 8:18 PM]**  
 **Okay i looked at that cat gif again and i can totally understand why ur not responding i probably wouldnt respond to me either**  
  
She smiled, wondering how she could have ever thought that Adrien was this cool, mysterious dude. He was the same caliber of dork as Chat Noir, just minus the leather and the weird obsession with cat-specific puns. Even if he didn’t make her heart ache anymore, she was supremely glad to have him as a friend. Maybe when she got over her weird hang up on Chat Noir, she could ask him out for real. Now that she knew him, it wasn’t such an intimidating concept.

**[Text To: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 8:20 PM]**  
 **You’re such a weirdo! I dropped by your house earlier to show you something, but you weren’t there :-(**  
  
Marinette figured that it was a safe enough fib, and she could keep the conversation going without having to acknowledge that yes, sometimes she thought cats were cute. What a ridiculous notion.  
  
 **[Text From: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 8:21 PM]**  
 **I ran to the coffee place by my hosue so i could stay awake thru cramming. i didnt see u on my way back i cant believe this**  
  
 **[Text To: Adrien <3 <3 <3 @ 8:23 PM]**  
 **Weird, we must have just missed each other! I’ll leave you to study :-)**  
  
Such a simple explanation, really. She climbed down from her bed, and sat down at her computer to attempt to get some studying done herself, idly wondering what she’d expected him to say. Impulsively, she pulled up Alya’s blog instead of anything even remotely related to her history assignment.  
  
There was a dark, blurry picture of Chat and herself, standing on a rooftop not too far from the bakery, and Marinette felt a tingle of concern creeping up her spine. She looked at herself, her pose clearly angry, accusing Chat Noir of...well, only Marinette and Chat would know what she was yelling at him for, and that was the only solace she had in regards to the picture. The caption explained that someone had spotted them from their living room window. Alya had already begun to theorize that this was the lucky duo’s first of many nightly patrols, and that the two were bickering over how things ought to be done.  
  
Marinette wondered if, somewhere, Chat Noir was looking at Alya’s Ladyblog and seeing the same picture, reliving whatever he’d felt when she’d given him that thorough and completely undeserved tongue lashing.  
  
Then again, what reason would he have to check up on Alya’s blog? It wasn't like he knew Alya. She shelved the thought, urgent to avoid making herself feel guilty all over again. The next time she saw Chat, she’d apologize and make it up to him somehow. That was that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for such a long wait! Only one chapter to go after this, though!

“I don’t know how you can fear getting rejected by Ladybug when you’ve never met her, dude,” Nino said, not even looking up from his DS to address Adrien’s concerns. Fair enough, really, given that Adrien had had the same thought probably a thousand times before. “Anyway, what’s with all the Ladybug stuff again? I thought you were into Marinette now.”

Adrien sputtered senselessly for a moment before finding words with which to respond. “Me? Marinette? Come on man, that’s just...that’s bananas.”

Nino looked up from his game for long enough to blink passively at Adrien with a single raised eyebrow. He turned back to his game and said, “Either you got a really bad sunburn in the last five minutes, or something else is making your face red. Like, I don’t know dude, a blush? Be real with yourself for a minute.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, honestly a little surprised that Nino had seen through him this quickly. True, they were best friends, but given that Adrien regularly lied about where he was and what he was doing without Nino batting an eye, he figured he was a better liar than all that. As usual, however, girls were his weakness. When it came to Ladybug, he’d always been a lovestruck mess. And now, when it came to Marinette, he was a blushing idiot.

“Okay, maybe I like her, but that’s not what we’re talking about,” he replied once he’d gathered his thoughts. “I really think Ladybug would hate me. Offer me like, moral support or something!”

Nino chuckled to himself, and switched off the game so that he could focus on his friend for a minute or so. Leaning forward, he offered his clueless white friend the best smile he could. “Literally no one in the world hates you, dude. Chloe Bourgeoisie, who hates everything but herself, has liked you since you were kids. It’s probably the best proof I have that if you met the President of France he’d be honored to shake your hand. What makes Ladybug different?”

At last, Adrien felt compelled to smile. While he hadn’t been expecting the pep talk of the century, Nino always knew how to cheer him up.

“Superpowers,” he replied, laughing to himself. “Superpowers make her different.”

Nino laughed too, and shrugged in defeat. “Plus, how can you beat a guy like Chat Noir? They’re practically dating, and it’s not like you can do backflips at the drop of a hat,” he said, beginning to switch on his DS once more. He paused, and looked at Adrien quizzically. “Can you? Do backflips?”

With a nervous gulp, Adrien waved his hands, dismissing it. “I might manage a front flip if I tried. Or a cartwheel. Does that count?”

At school the next day, Adrien felt pumped up enough to handle just maybe dealing with some of his problems. He had to apologize to Ladybug for being irresponsible, but that wouldn’t come up until there was an akuma attack. More immediately was his Marinette issue. He had decided, with Ladybug’s anger making him feel shame coil in his stomach like an ice cold snake, that he needed to move on from the red clad savior of Paris. Her disappointment in him was enough to make him feel so dreadful that he couldn’t bear it any longer, and he knew that the easiest way to knock her off of the pedestal he’d made for her was to place someone else on top.

He’d known he liked Marinette for longer than he’d truly admitted to himself, after all. With Ladybug it had been easy to reconcile himself with his crush on her--half of Paris felt the same toward her. With Marinette, his feelings had grown slowly to the point that he could not ignore them. 

There was only one thing to do, he’d decided. He was going to confess his true feelings to Marinette, and offer her a way out of the fake relationship if she wanted it. That way she wouldn’t have to be close to someone with unrequited feelings for her, but if she liked him back, then perhaps their relationship would go from fake to real.

He felt himself smile, thinking of what would happen if she wanted to be his real girlfriend. What would their anniversary be, the day he fake asked her out, or today? Would Chloe notice the shift? He’d have to introduce her to his dad for real. He wondered if he should get Alya’s approval first, but ultimately decided that that would be old fashioned. He would just have to stand up, look her in those beautiful blue eyes of hers, and ask her--

“What’s your excuse this time, Marinette?” Mme. Bustier asked, raising a tolerant eyebrow at her tardy student. “Air pollution again, or was there traffic on the one street between your bakery and the school?”

Marinette smiled awkwardly, shuffling to her seat awkwardly. “Well you see a family of ducks was crossing and I--”

Mme. Bustier laughed and shook her head, and resumed talking to the class as she had been doing a moment earlier. Adrien let out the breath he had been holding, waiting to hear Marinette’s excuse, and looked down at the book on his desk so that he would have an excuse not to stare at her. Really, it was all too easy for him to get caught up in the simple act of looking at her. 

She sat down behind him with a soft sigh, and he wondered if she was looking at him. In a motion that he thought was surreptitious (but likely was pretty obvious) he turned and glanced over his shoulder at Marinette. She was still unpacking her backpack, but she seemed to sense his stare, and looked up at him. She offered him a small smile, and then set back to work.

His heart beating fast, he turned back to face the front of the room. Adrien was not one for being overly nervous about anything, really, but given his track record with confessions, this would not be easy. After all, the last time he tried to confess to a girl he liked, he got shot by an anti-love arrow and lost about half a day.

This time would be better.

After all, he thought with a smile, he had the advantage of already dating the girl of his dreams..

 

* * *

 

The last bell rang, and Marinette began packing up her bag. Adrien, as usual, waited around for her to get finished, and lingered at the bottom of the steps for her to join him on the short walk to his limo, which always awaited him at the front of the school. When she came to his side, she comfortably slipped her arm around his waist, aware that Chloe was likely watching them. Even if she wasn’t, it was a comfortable way to walk with him, and Marinette no longer minded the proximity.

As they entered the hall, Adrien slowed, as though not quite wanting to say goodbye for the day quite yet. She slowed with him, casting a curious glance up at him.

“I...have something to say,” he began, his green eyes peering earnestly down at her. He opened his mouth to continue, but her stomach seized up, and she raised her free hand to stop him.

She’d been thinking about this all day, and now was the only time to do it.

“I do too,” she said, interrupting him. “Can I go first?”

He smiled down at her with an expression that, some weeks earlier, would have had her weak at the knees and babbling incoherently. Now, however, it simply left her aching for a broad grin that she’d never seen on Adrien’s face. He nodded, so she took a deep breath, and embarked upon her question.

“I think we should end this,” she said, cutting to the chase as quickly as she could. Not checking to see how he was reacting, she pressed on. “I don’t think it’s really helped with Chloe bugging you, and I...I’d like to be free to pursue the person I like…”

She looked at him closely, then, trying to determine his reaction. She watched him swallow, nod to himself, and put on his well practised smile. She was used to seeing him use that expression on Chloe or a fan, but never her. She’d always encouraged genuine smiles on Adrien’s face, and she was not a fan of the change.

“That makes sense,” he said, his face still fixed in the faux smile. “No problem, Marinette!”

Marinette smiled tentatively up at him, and detached her arm from his waist so that she could face him properly. “We’re still friends, right?” she asked. “You don’t hate me for leaving the arrangement?”

His face softened into a real smile. “I could never hate you, Marinette,” he said, and it sounded as though he were telling her a secret.

She beamed back up at him. “I could never hate you either, Adrien,” she replied, with absolutely no ulterior meaning under her words. “I’m gonna run home so I can start my homework, okay? I’ll text you later!”

With that, she began walking away, but she thought she heard him say something along the lines of “Your crush is pretty lucky.” She sighed to herself, wondering how true this was, and did not turn around.

Later that evening, when a nighttime security guard ran amok, Marinette was actively glad that an akuma had decided to take a victim. In retrospect, it was the type of reaction she ought to feel guilty about, but she was too excited to talk to Chat Noir and tell him her feelings for him. Even in the face of a flashlight based disaster caused by Nightwatch, she was too enthusiastic about her love life to be properly serious.

He was an easy victim to defeat, and with his flashlight broken over her knee, Chat Noir went in for a fist bump. He’d been almost silent the entire time, obviously still sore over their last encounter, and his silence hurt her worse than she’d imagined possible.

“Mission accomplished,” he said, extending his fist with a sad smile.

Instead, she caught his hand in hers. “Chat, I wanted to tell you something,” Ladybug blurted out, pulling him close to her. She only had a few minutes before her transformation would wear out, and she needed to do this now. “I broke up with my boyfriend,” she said.

His eyes widened in surprise, and then narrowed in confusion.

“You did what?!” he demanded, shaking his hand free of hers. There was pain in his voice, which she had not expected, and she stumbled backward, shy of this emotion she’d never seen in him before.

Ladybug wasn’t certain what reaction she’d expected, but this hadn’t been it. Maybe she’d wanted him to wink, and say that this was his op-purr-tunity. Maybe she’d wanted him to look interested, or at least curious as to what she’d say next. She didn’t know where this pain was coming from, and she was suddenly afraid to find out.

“I...I…” she stammered, unsure of what to say to turn him back into the smiling, silly Chat Noir she’d grown to love. With the beep of her earrings, she turned away from him. “I’ll see you around, Chat Noir.”

She yo-yo’d away from him to detransform, and ignored the tears of confusion in her eyes.

 

* * *

 

Chat Noir sat down where he’d stood, and put his head in his hands. The day Marinette had broken up with him--if it could be called that--was the same day that Ladybug had left her boyfriend. Come to think of it, Ladybug had gotten a boyfriend at about the same time he’d started to ‘date’ Marinette. Any time they’d been on a date together and an Akuma had appeared, he’d never had to save Marinette, despite her frequently running off in the direction of the danger. 

Marinette had laughed when he’d revealed his crush on Ladybug, and mentioned that she wished she’d known this earlier.

Blue eyes stared at him in his mind’s eye, and he wasn’t sure if they belonged to the superheroine or his classmate.

Marinette was Ladybug.

Ladybug was Marinette.

As Plagg detransformed him, Adrien began to laugh. He laughed so hard his stomach hurt, and shook his head incredulously.

“You okay, kid?” Plagg asked, floating around his head.

Adrien smiled up at him, his eyes wet but his face smiling. “I’ve been torturing myself over whether I like Ladybug or Marinette, and they’re the same person,” he said.

“Yeah? Seems pretty obvious to me,” Plagg replied, digging in Adrien’s pocket for cheese.

“This means I have a chance with her,” he said. “She liked Chat Noir, I know it. She was...jealous, I think. I have a chance.”

“You believe whatever you want, kid.”

Adrien picked himself up off the ground, smiling into the night. Now he had two chances to win her over at once, no holds barred. He had a chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The akuma in this chapter was a bit rushed, but I wanted to focus on important things...like love squares...Anyway his name is Nightwatch, his family told him that his job as a nighttime museum guard was a waste of his talents, and he got upset. He had a flashlight that he could temporarily blind people with. I'll try to post the next chapter in the next couple of days, and get to writing a new fic that should be less angsty? I hope? Jeez


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter! Sorry it took so long, but I hope you like it!

The last few days had been... _odd_ , to say the least. Every time Marinette walked into a room to talk to her friends, she found Alya and Adrien with heads bowed together, whispering. This wouldn’t be altogether unusual, given Alya’s penchant for conspiracy theories, except for the fact that they stopped as soon as they noticed her enter. What’s more, Adrien would smile--no, _grin_ \--as soon as his eyes alighted upon her. It was the kind of grin that made her heart sore for someone else entirely, and it irked her that she could not fathom its source.

That alone would not have bothered her over much, if Chat Noir hadn’t been acting strangely too. He seemed to have gotten over his anger at her, and was back to his silly flirty self, but the way he looked at her was strange. She’d caught him staring at her before in the months they’d worked together, but he always looked away when she turned to face him. Now, his stares were long, amorous, and completely unashamed.

Somehow, this made it more difficult for her to confess her feelings for him. Every time she turned to tell him, he was looking at her with hearts in his eyes, and her tongue glued itself to the roof of her mouth. And then, because her life was a mess, something would usually explode. It wasn’t easy talking about feelings while in hot pursuit of an akuma victim, after all.

To make a weird week weirder, on the Monday after she’d ended her fake relationship with the previous boy of her dreams, she rushed downstairs to find several hundred francs worth of flowers in the bakery.

“Special occasion, mama?” she asked, despite being inevitably late for school.

Her mother smiled cryptically and pressed a card into her hand before pushing her through the door of the bakery and out into the street so that she could make it to school. As Marinette jogged over to Françoise Dupont, she looked at the card curiously.

_I thought I might make your family’s bakery as beautiful as you, Marinette. From your not so secret admirer ,_ read the card, followed by a cartoonish doodle of a winking, green eyed cat.

Marinette slowed, her face suddenly very pale, and read the card again. Her gut instinct was to say that Chat Noir had sent it--after all, who else was a not so secret admirer? And that cat signature was telling, wasn’t it? She tore her eyes from the card and walked into the school building, biting her lip as she tried to think of who else could have left the flowers for her. After all, she reasoned, Chat Noir didn’t know who she was. Chat Noir _couldn’t_ know who she was.

There had to be another explanation, and that was that.

When she burst into the classroom, Adrien was already seated at the front, his hands folded on his desk. He looked at her expectantly, and she flushed slightly as she tried to slide the card into her pocket without him noticing.

As she settled into her seat, she took out the card and slid to to Alya. Alya scooped it up and peered at it critically, but the small smile playing about her lips gave her away. Although they couldn’t discuss it in class, Marinette had a growing suspicion that Alya had something to do with this.

Silently, she began working out a hundred different scenarios in which Alya could have had contact with that silly black cat, and what reason he would have had for sending her such an extravagant and aromatic gift. She supposed, after a while, that it wasn’t Chat Noir after all.

Suddenly, she eyed the back of Adrien’s head. Would he…? No, he wasn’t a secret admirer of hers, after all. He was just a friend. Right? He didn’t have any other feelings toward her...unless…

No. She couldn’t afford such doubts. It was Chat Noir pranking her somehow, probably.

“Do you have any idea who could have sent this?” she murmured to Alya, glancing at the card and then back at her friend.

Alya shrugged with a smile, and slid the card back toward Marinette. “Whoever it is, he probably really cares about you. Those flowers were nice, yeah?”

Marinette pointed at her accusingly. “You didn’t see the flowers! And you’re assuming it’s a ‘he!’ You were involved with this, weren’t you?”

The would-be journalist smiled innocently, but Marinette was not buying it for one second. “I may have pointed someone in the right direction,” she said, her innocent smile breaking into a mischievous grin.

“How do you even know Chat Noir?” Marinette demanded.

“Chat Noir?” Alya repeated, looking genuinely puzzled. “Why would Chat Noir send you flowers? Is there something you haven’t told me?”

Marinette clapped her hands over her mouth and shook her head, eyes wide. If it hadn’t been Chat Noir, then she had absolutely no reason to assume, from Alya’s perspective. She started to laugh, quaking slightly as she lowered her hands. The most obvious explanation was the best one, she decided.

“He’s such a prankster! He comes by the bakery sometimes at night to tease me and flirt, I thought this would be up his alley,” she explained, still laughing to herself.

Alya didn’t look entirely convinced, but let it drop, instead choosing to pursue a more satisfactory line of conversation. “Don’t you want to know who sent them?” she asked, poking Marinette in the side.

“Of course I want to know!” she replied, pouting out her lower lip. Unheeded, her eyes wandered suspiciously toward Adrien again. He _was_ wealthy enough…

“Well too bad, I’m not going to tell you!” Alya declared, gloating. “But I’ll tell you something almost as interesting.”

“Do you think it was Nathanael?” Marinette mused, vowing to ignore whatever bait Alya was setting out for her.

“Listen, girl, I know who it was, and he’s--No! You’re not going to trick me into telling you!” Alya crossed her arms. “You might be terrible at keeping secrets, but I’m not.”

Marinette chuckled. She’d half hoped Alya would fall for it, but was also partially glad she hadn’t. She wouldn’t be Alya if she’d fallen for it.

“Fine, don’t tell me,” Marinette said, taking the card back from her.

At a sharp look from Mme. Mendeleiev, the girls hushed their banter. It wasn’t until the break for lunch that Marinette could seek more answers as to who her secret admirer was, if not Chat Noir.

However, as soon as she opened her mouth to ask, Adrien turned around in his seat to interrupt her.

“Did Alya let you know about karaoke yet?” he asked, his green eyes bright and hopeful. Marinette couldn’t stay annoyed that he’d interrupted her if he kept looking at her like _that,_ now could she.

“Karaoke?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at Alya.

Alya grinned. “I tried to tell her!” she said to Adrien. “But she was too hung up on some secret admirer she thinks she has.”

Marinette felt her face turn pink. It seemed so conceited when Alya put it like that, and despite no longer being head over heels for Adrien, the remnants of romantic feelings were still there, and she didn’t want him thinking badly of her. Anyway, he probably had hundreds of secret admirers, so he wouldn’t understand her confusion over having just one.

Adrien turned toward Marinette with wide eyes. “Who do you think it is?” he asked eagerly.

Alya answered before Marinette so much as opened her mouth. “She thinks it’s Nathanael, would you believe it? As if a shy boy like him would send her flowers.”

“Flowers, huh?” Adrien said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “Sounds like a real romantic gift. Did you like them?”

Marinette stammered for a moment before she could manage real words. This conversation had gone in an entirely unexpected direction. “I...yeah, they were really pretty,” she said at last.

Adrien looked satisfied with her answer, and Nino shook his head as though he wanted no part in their shenanigans.

“But enough about those,” Alya said dismissively. “We’re thinking of going to a karaoke bar tonight, and it wouldn’t be any fun without our Marinette there.”

Once again, Marinette repeated, “Karaoke.”

For someone who had seemed so excited about the idea just a moment earlier, Adrien looked embarrassed. “I just thought it would be fun if you came along, really.”

Nino scoffed, and it wasn’t quiet. “The whole idea was ‘Do you think Marinette likes karaoke? Oh I guess you guys could come too!’” he said, mimicking Adrien’s voice in a falsetto.

Adrien turned bright red. It was as though all the blood in his body had rushed to his face all at once, and he actively avoided Marinette’s gaze. She recalled once, some months ago, when she’d told Chat Noir that she’d kiss him if he could leap an impossible distance without falling on his face. Of course, he’d immediately attempted the leap, and just as predictably flubbed it. Feeling generous between laughs, she’d followed him down and kissed him on the cheek. His face had turned a shade so red that it matched her Ladybug suit.

She didn’t know why she’d suddenly remembered that. And she _certainly_ didn’t know why her cheeks turned pink in reaction to the memory.

“As long as we don’t stay out too late,” she said slowly, trying to ignore her curious train of thought. “It sounds really fun!”

 

* * *

   
Adrien was there early. Of course he got to the karaoke place early--he was the only one in his friend group who had a limousine and had told Nathalie that he had a very important school project so he couldn’t commit to anything else for the night. The rest of them had to find their way there on their own, and ask their parents who cared about them deeply for permission. It made absolute sense that his friends might be delayed.

He squirmed in his seat. He hoped Ladybug showed up first.

Or rather, he hoped Marinette would show up first. He couldn’t help but smile to himself, the dissonance between his two lady loves’ identities having faded as he looked closer and closer the last few days. He’d already set in motion his plan to reveal himself slowly, incrementally, so as to make Marinette believe that she’d come to her own conclusions without his hinting. It was the only way he’d thought of that he could reveal himself without breaking their agreement not to out themselves in order to maintain the integrity of the team.

The first step had been the flowers. He’d asked for Alya’s help in planning a mildly ostentatious gift, and intentionally signed it vaguely. With Alya knowing what he was up to, but sworn into secrecy, he’d hoped that Marinette might wonder if he was her secret admirer. In the meantime, as she figured it out, her suspicions about other people might lead him to who she actually liked. He’d told himself that it didn’t matter who she liked--he’d win her heart by being genuine, hilarious, and her friend. She’d come around.

He did wonder if he ought to interrogate Nathanael, but--

“Oh Adrien, how long have you been waiting for us?”

Adrien’s train of thought was promptly derailed as Alya’s voice reached his ears. He looked up to see Alya and Marinette, arm in arm, entering the building. Alya was in the forefront, and Adrien’s mouth nearly opened in shock when he saw that she was wearing a short plaid dress and a large sunhat, rather than her usual button up and skinny jeans combo he was so accustomed to. Marinette, trailing a bit behind her, in a simple white dress with lace sleeves and collar. Her hair was free of her typical ponytails and done up in a graceful bun. Her headband matched the dress, with delicate white flowers and pearls hiding in the deep black of her hair.

“I wish I’d known to get dressed up!” he said, standing to greet them. He wished he could ignore how breathless he was just from seeing Marinette in a dress. Honestly, he saw her in a spotted spandex onesie at least twice a week--he should be able to roll with her wardrobe punches at this point.

“Well, you know,” Alya said, brushing back her hair from her shoulders. “We had to dress up for a date, didn’t we?” Her grin was toothy enough to be somewhat menacing, even though Adrien knew she was on his side.

“She told me that you’d be dressed up,” Marinette added, looking affectionately at Alya with a raised eyebrow. “And if I hadn’t insisted that she wear this dress, she’d have had me be the only one overdressed to a karaoke bar.”

Adrien grinned through his laughter, and tossed an arm over Marinette’s shoulder. It was such a comfortable movement, after weeks of fake dating and months of an easy crime fighting partnership, that neither of them cringed or went stiff. It was exactly what both of them wanted from each other, in that moment.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Adrien said, smiling down at the tiny girl who’d managed to claim his heart twice over. “There’s no such thing as being overdressed for a karaoke joint. They’re classy places.”

Marinette snorted, and all of them settled into a booth so as to wait for Nino. While they waited, they watched other groups of friends getting up on stage and making fools of themselves. Adrien watched closely, studying them as though he were trying to avoid staring at Marinette. In fact, that may have been exactly his intention. He knew that if she caught him staring, his tongue would turn to cotton, and he’d lose all nerve to go up on the small stage and sing his heart out. So he watched a small hispanic person with cat-eye glasses singing along to Hakuna Matata, hand in hand with an only slightly larger white person who seemed too giggly to continue for much longer.

He smiled, watching them laugh and clutch their sides as they tried to sing. Daring a glance at Marinette, he hoped that they had as much fun on stage. He didn’t know what song Nino would pick, but his friend would definitely have his back and not pick anything embarrassing. Probably. As long as it wasn’t a song from Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, it’d probably be fine. Adrien definitely wasn’t going to worry about it, and definitely wasn’t starting to sweat at the prospect of having to sing _Wouldn’t It Be Nice ._

Maybe he should have thought to ask Alya, instead.

By the time Nino arrived, Adrien was low key panicking, and he wasn’t certain if the girls had yet caught on. They were discussing Mean Girls and wondering what Chloe would look like with a shaved head over a bowl of tortilla chips and dip when Nino stepped in, dressed in exactly what he had worn to school that day. At least Adrien wasn’t the only one dressed down, he thought, but he hoped to whatever deities were out there that Nino had come prepared with a song in mind that had absolutely nothing to do with surfing.

Nino slid into the seat next to him, turning himself and Alya into bookends for Adrien and Marinette, and threw an arm over Adrien’s shoulders.

“What’s happening, dudes? Did I miss anything?” he asked, grinning.

“Some dorks just went up and laughed instead of singing at all, and we ordered chips,” Alya said, filling him in.

Soon after, two other dorks were stepping up to the, and the giggles had Marinette in their clutches, so it looked as though they might be replicating the performance as those before them. Marinette’s giggling was infectious, and his nerves had never been quite made of steel, so nothing could assuage the nervous laughter bubbling forth.

Nino dutifully selected a song, and as Adrien closed his eyes and braced himself for _Good Vibrations ._ Instead, the first notes of _[Just a Little Kiss ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBqMP4Hdo98), _ from the soundtrack of a movie Adrien had watched as a kid with his mom. His eyes lit up--this was one of the few songs outside of anime openings that he genuinely knew all the words to. A glance at Marinette’s enthusiastic expression confirmed that she knew the song too, and a relieved smile broke over his face.

“To feel unbearable, never again,” Marinette began, a bit hesitant as she followed along with the monitor in front of them.

“Even if I change deep inside I’ll be the same,” Adrien added in, his voice mingling with hers surprisingly well. He winked encouragingly, and plowed on to finish the verse; “We have a tendency to be ashamed. Let me show you how to help me break out of this chain.”

The chorus, which was undeniably about kissing, came next, and although the dynamic crime fighting duo’s eyes had been locked on each other for support just a moment previously, both nervously shifted their eyes elsewhere for the time being. Despite this momentary awkwardness, the up tempo beat of the music and the eyes of their friends on them kept them going, and it wasn’t long before Adrien was able to throw himself back into the song again, wrapping his arm around Marinette’s waist to pull her toward him in a bold move that transitioned to a dance as they sang together.

“Don’t you know, it’s enough to believe that every glass of water will return to the sea,” Marinette sang, her blue eyes caught on Adrien’s green as she grinned through the lyrics.

She began clapping as Adrien accompanied her through the rest of the verse, unable to look away from this silly, bold, beautiful girl he’d undoubtedly fallen in love with.

 

* * *

 

 Adrien had agreed to walk her home--it wasn’t far to her bakery, after all, and Alya lived across town so it would have been inconvenient for Alya’s mom to drop her off. She couldn’t believe how comfortable she felt in the slight chill of the evening, her arm almost brushing against Adrien’s as they walked and talked. If she were to travel back in time and tell Marinette of a few months ago that she’d go on a karaoke date with Adrien, sing a sappy love song that she’d loved since she was 10, and walk home with him so close that she could touch him, she imagined that the Marinette of the past would faint right out.

Now, however, she could glance up and almost always catch Adrien’s green eyes--which almost seemed to glow in the disappearing light of the evening--looking down at her affectionately. She felt a faint pang of guilt in her stomach, looking up at him now, thinking about the feelings he might have for her, that she’d completely disregarded in the hopes of pursuing Chat Noir. The guilt faded a bit as she realized that “purr-suing” was an all too obvious pun that Chat Noir would likely grip his sides and fall off a building laughing about.

Although, given the things Adrien had proven himself liable to snort about, it might be the kind of joke to set _him_ off too. It was really curious how similar the two boys in her life were, despite their massive and undeniable differences.

Too soon, it seemed, the ex-fake-lovebirds came to Marinette’s doorstep. She turned to face Adrien, looking up at him as she’d become so accustomed to doing. He smiled down at her, and she couldn’t shake the idea that his eyes had a faint glow to them.

He licked his lips, and opened his mouth as if to say something very vital to him, when a crash was heard from Notre Dame across the way. A guard was throwing out a young man, probably in his 20s, with a several day old beard and a lot of film equipment. The two gawked as he stood up, brushed himself off, and with evident tears in his eyes, gathered up his cameras and shuffled off.

Marinette felt her expression grow stern as she stared after him.

“Another ghost hunter, I’ll bet,” she said, shaking her head. “They should stop trying to break in, but that guard seemed a bit over rough.”

Adrien nodded solemnly. “You’d think Paris would learn to be kind to each other, given that the victims of cruelty have a habit of turning into monsters.”

Marinette looked up at him again with a soft sigh. “Easier said than done, I guess,” she said. “I don’t know how you stay so kind and positive all the time, Adrien,” she admitted, turning her big blue eyes toward the ground. “I find myself being petty sometimes, even though I know what happens if someone is pushed too far.”

“Princess,” he said softly, and touched her face. He moved her chin so that he could see her, and once again seemed to brace himself to tell her something urgent indeed. “I--” he managed before cackling came from behind him.

A glowing man clad in primarily white spandex floated into view, a large flashlight clutched in his fist. Marinette’s jaw dropped as she saw him grin, shine his light onto a wall of Notre Dame, and phase right through the illuminated area.

“An akuma victim,” she breathed urgently, her expression down to business. She loved the history of Paris too much to let some ghost-brain trash it, and if she were lucky (which she always was), she could talk to Chat Noir about her feelings.

She brushed Adrien aside and ran into her house, transforming quickly and yo-yoing out through an open window. When she checked over her shoulder to make sure Adrien was safe, at least, she noted that he’d run off. In the short time it took her to get into Notre Dame, she heard the soft footsteps of a certain kitty cat behind her.

She turned to grin at him, and she noticed how his green eyes glowed in the dark.

“Good evening, my lady,” he said, leaning toward her as he always had done.

“Come on, Chat Noir,” she replied. “You can flirt with me once we’ve exorcized this Poltergeist,” she told him with a wink.

“Aw, that’ll be in no time!” Chat said. “I ain’t afraid of no ghost!”

The two bounded off, chasing the faint glow that the Poltergeist had left in his wake, trying to listen for any mad declarations or cackling that might give them a clue as to what his goal might be in Notre Dame. Ladybug had already figured that the flashlight was the only haunted thing in the place, so now it was just the trick of separating him from it. After some time of chasing him through the beautiful Gothic architecture, they caught him at the high altar, among the many kneeling statues.

Ladybug flung her yo yo at him, hoping to catch him around the ankle and trip him so that Chat could scamper forward and snatch his flashlight, but her yo yo passed right through his leg. It appeared that, despite his newfound ability to rip statues from walls without incident, he was functionally incorporeal.

“That’s im-paw-sible! How are you going to catch him?” Chat said, possibly even missing the pun as he said it.

“There’s only one thing to do, my silly kitty,” she replied, shaking her head. This meant that she wouldn’t have much time to talk to him, after all. Oh well, another disaster, another date. She flung her yo yo into the air, calling out, “Lucky charm!”

A handheld vacuum cleaner, appropriately spotted, landed in her hands, much to her bemusement.

Chat Noir snickered. “Looks like your lucky charm is looking to have you clean up the mess he’s making in a literal way this time,” he said, grinning at her with his too-sharp teeth.

She stuck her tongue out at him, and began casting around for inspiration. Her eyes went from the vacuum itself, to the head of one of the few remaining kneeling statues, to the obviously Ghost Busters inspired logo on Poltergeist’s chest.

“Keep him here, Chat!” she called out, leaping and bounding toward the debris around the statues.

Chat dutifully collapsed a pillar across the most obvious exist from the area while Ladybug sprung from the head of the last remaining statue and activated the vacuum. Despite the size of the vacuum, it seemed to catch Poltergeist in its stream, and he found himself pulled toward it in such a way that even he couldn’t escape. Chat leapt from the collapsed pillar and snatched the akuma object from the poor ghost’s trembling hands, and tossed it at Ladybug.

With his luck, of course he missed, but the force of his throw snapped the akuma object neatly in half, and it was a snap to catch and purify the akuma from there.

Ladybug threw an arm over Chat’s shoulder affectionately as they walked toward the street outside, glad to have rid Paris of another victim and saved an important part of Parisian history.

“You said I could flirt with you once the pesky ghost was gone, didn’t you?” Chat said, practically purring.

“You know, Chat, I--” but before she could even attempt to sputter out any manner of confession, a warning beep from her earring stopped her in her tracks. “I should go,” she finished lamely.

“Wait,” he said, and his tone was suddenly quite serious.

“I don’t have long,” she said, pointing to her earring and stepping back.

“Neither do I, but I have something I want to tell you,” he replied urgently, gesturing to his ring which was also counting down the minutes.

She fidgeted for a bit, before nodding firmly and crossing her arms. “Go on, then, kitty. What do you have to say?”

He smiled, then, his glowing eyes squinting in happiness as he took a deep breath. His transformation faded before her eyes, defying all logic--hadn’t she used Lucky Charm almost a full minute before Cataclysm? How was this happening? And--he was out of costume. He was wearing skinny jeans, a black T shirt with a simple design across the front, and a pale grey overshirt, rolled up at the sleeves. Without his mask, his hair was arranged neatly around his face, framing his...his green eyes.

She was looking at Adrien Agreste.

Chat Noir was Adrien Agreste, and he was smiling at her nervously, tucking his hair behind his ears as she’d seen him do so often at school.

“I wanted to say that I love you,” he said simply. “I love you as Ladybug, and I love you as Marinette. I love...all of you.” His voice was hushed, shy almost, but he didn’t waver. He looked right into her eyes, which were still wide with shock.

As her transformation dissolved around her, she punched him in the chest--hard. “You knew?!” she said, punching him again.

He laughed, and spread his arms. “Ouch. Yeah, I figured it out.”

She stumbled into his arms, then, so grateful that he was who he was. Their lips met--not out of necessity, not out of showmanship, but out of love--and Marinette was warmed by the fact that this boy, this silly cat, was both her best friend and the love of her life. She’d grown to love two facets of him, grown to trust both halves, and finally, she could reconcile her feelings for both.

His hands rested on her lower back, and pulled her to him. In complete glee, she wrapped her arms around his neck and gladly went up on tiptoe to be as close to him as she could. She felt his lips smile against hers, nearly having her kiss his lips, and before she knew it, he was dipping her. They laughed together, and kissed through the laughter, bumping noses and clashing teeth all in the giddiness of their discovery.

When they finally split to breathe, Marinette’s face hurt from smiling.

“I love you too, Adrien. I love...all of you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have some 'deleted scenes' in mind that just couldn't quite fit in, that I may someday post as a secondary thing, but otherwise--here's the story in it's completion! I hope you liked it! It was fun to write, but it was sooo satisfying reading all your kind comments and seeing your kudos. If it weren't for you guys, I most definitely would never have finished, and may not have ever written more than one chapter! Thank you guys so much for reading :) <3


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